Roblox has been no stranger to controversies lately, as several lawsuits have been leveled against the game on the grounds that it does not do enough to protect children from predatory behavior. Though primarily frequented by very young kids, Roblox allegedly does not do enough to keep them from harm, or so claims the most recent of several suits filed against Roblox Corporation, this time by Los Angeles County.

On Feb. 19, Roblox Corporation was sued by LA County because "children in Los Angeles County have been repeatedly exposed to sexually explicit content, exploitation, and grooming on Roblox," as the company has "put corporate profit over the safety of children." The game enjoys a considerable audience of very young children, and it "has a responsibility to keep kids safe." However, LA County alleges that "instead it has allowed its platform to become a place where children can be exposed to grooming and exploitation."

Roblox has since responded to the lawsuit, saying that "no system is perfect" but that its "commitment to safety never ends," PC Gamer wrote. "We strongly dispute the claims in this lawsuit and will defend against it vigorously," the company added. "Roblox is built with safety at its core, and we continue to evolve and strengthen our protections every day."

"We have advanced safeguards that monitor our platform for harmful content and communications, and users cannot send or receive images via chat, avoiding one of the most prevalent opportunities for misuse seen elsewhere online," the statement continues.

"We take swift action against anyone found to violate our safety rules and work closely with law enforcement to support investigations and help hold bad actors accountable," they conclude.

This isn't the first lawsuit of this kind Roblox has found itself embroiled in. Last August, Roblox was sued by the State of Louisiana, which argued similar points as LA County. Back then, state representatives wrote that "[Roblox Corporation] has permitted and perpetuated an online environment in which child predators thrive, directly contributing to the widespread victimization of minor children in Louisiana."

Criminal subpoenas were issued to Roblox Corporation by the State of Florida last October, which labeled the game as "a breeding ground for predators."

On top of it all, Roblox Corporation chief executive David Baszucki flaunted the idea of betting in Roblox, claiming it could be implemented educationally in the game, stirring further controversy and causing people to doubt the company's commitment to protecting children.

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Windrose, an open-world co-op pirate action-adventure game, has accrued over one million wishlists so far, even though it doesn't even have a set release date. Its comprehensive demo seems to have captivated such a broad audience that folks just can't get enough, and having tried it out myself, I kind of see why.

Windrose's demo came out on Feb. 17. Since then, droves of players have hopped on to check what it's all about, discovering an incredibly fun and deep survival crafting experience set during the Golden Age of Piracy, i.e., sometime during the early 18th century. At its core, Windrose is very reminiscent of Valheim. Hell, it'd be difficult to determine if they were made by different people.

You're stranded in a strange land, have to craft and build to sustain yourself, and then eventually expand and start sailing the high seas in search of new fortunes. It's a simple gameplay loop, one that Valheim popularized and almost perfected. But where Windrose stands out is its setting, as Valheim's celestial Nordic backdrop (while amazing) seems to have been a poor choice for such a game compared to the West Indies.

Taking on the role of a crestfallen captain stranded alone on an island and having to build yourself back up is a more interesting pipeline than Vikings ending up in some form of the afterlife, at least to me. On top of that, Windrose refines the combat and gathering mechanics, utilizing the power of the Unreal Engine to combine stunning visuals with grounded movement and fighting. I know a lot of people are averse to hearing those two words, and I'm wholeheartedly with you.

However, the devs here knew what they were doing, and instead of slapping on a generic photorealistic graphical style and calling it a day, they actually decided to pursue a unique art direction, which has ultimately paid off.

With over one million wishlists total so far, and the demo having been out for just five days as of this article, I have a feeling that we're yet again looking at a potential indie smash hit that is to blow AAA competition out of the water. In fact, I think Ubisoft is particularly feeling the weight of Windrose's success, given the abject failure that was Skull and Bones.

That game purports to do much of the same as Windrose, but generally fails on all accounts, even though it has the incredible Assassin's Creed Black Flag piracy system serving as its basis.

An indie in the West Indies is probably going to be crowned king of pirate games, and certainly of survival crafting titles, seeing as that genre has a particular knack at totally overwhelming the gaming sphere (just remember how well Palworld did back when it first launched).

The post This open-world pirate adventure has over a million wishlists already—and is probably causing a big old headache for Ubisoft execs appeared first on Destructoid.

Phil Spencer is officially exiting his role at Xbox after spending over a decade at the helm. He's been with Microsoft for nearly 40 years, having joined as an intern all the way back in 1988. His replacement is a former president of one of Microsoft's AI divisions, and though she staunchly denied AI's involvement in the future of Microsoft Gaming, not everyone is convinced.

The new CEO of Xbox will be Asha Sharma, the recent president of Microsoft's CoreAI division. She joined the company in 2024 and doesn't really have much gaming background to speak of. What she does have is experience in leadership positions, having been a COO at Intercart and the president of Meta's product and engineering department before eventually hopping into Microsoft's AI side.

Sharma is a firm supporter of artificial intelligence and its real-world applications. In fact, she thinks AI solutions in medicine and healthcare could potentially reverse the effects of declining global fertility rates, saying in one podcast that AI solutions in the UK improved pregnancy rates while "cutting costs at the same time." She also praised GPT-5 for its role in improving healthcare, as well as how AI is being used at Stanford to amplify tumor reviews.

To put it simply: Sharma is quite supportive of artificial intelligence solutions, but, for whatever reason, wants us to believe it's out of the question at Xbox.

In an internal email shared with Microsoft staff amid her appointment as Xbox head, Sharma said the following: "As monetization and AI evolve and influence this future, we will not chase short-term efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop. Games are and always will be art, crafted by humans, and created with the most innovative technology provided by us."

This bit, while encouraging, could be taken as a string of recognizable buzzwords strung together for immediate effect, rather than to reflect long-term strategies. I'm not the only one smelling a rat: most of the people responding to Sharma's new position are having a hard time believing such a staunch AI supporter would declare the technology verboten at her new job.

"I don't want to be a doomer, but this doesn't look good," one Reddit user wrote in response to Sharma's prior tenure as Core AI president. "Having an AI exec in charge does not breed confidence," said another. "Something's really fucking terrifying to me about someone from AI taking over as head of the agency," wrote another still.

The sentiments among gamers are very gloomy, with many thinking this could spell the end of Xbox as we know it.

Spencer's tenure as Xbox president wasn't the best, but his role in turning the tide for Xbox One, as well as in introducing the Game Pass service and multiplatformity as a default for publishers, will be remembered quite fondly. A lot of bad has happened in between, however, but I don't think we've seen the worst of it yet.

Sharma could have been quite sincere in her email, and she does seem to want to engage with gaming in a different way, but her career doesn't inspire hope that Xbox will once again become the beacon of the industry. AI, no matter what, is a fundamental stain on art.

The post Phil Spencer’s replacement by an AI evangelist at Xbox has players fearing for the future of the company: ‘I don’t want to be a doomer, but this doesn’t look good’ appeared first on Destructoid.

Saints Row is one of those franchises that just about anyone who has played video games knows. It's a staple of the olden days, especially its second entry. However, following the abject failure of its revival and the closure of the studio that made it, many believed, myself included, that Saints Row was done for good.

Hope remained in the period following, though, that the franchise could still be saved. Well, according to the original Saints Row's design director, Chris Stockman, the series is probably "dead." As posted by X user papaRPG, Stockman remarked on the state of Saints Row in a Discord exchange with a fan. During the conversation, he bluntly said that he believes the series is probably never coming back.

"Honestly, I think the franchise is dead," he wrote. "I get the sense that Embracer has zero ability to do anything with it."

"I wish things were different. I tried my best to offer a path forward, but they ghosted me," Stockman added.

Embracer Group owned subsidiaries that themselves held ownership of Saints Row developer Volition, which was acquired by Deep Silver and then by Gearbox, both of whom were under the Embracer umbrella. While Gearbox eventually got itself sold to 2K, Volition unfortunately had to go the hard way and was fully closed down following the utter failure of Saints Row's first and only reboot title.

Stockman was supposedly meant to save the franchise in subsequent years, with papaRPG writing last October that he was contracted by Embracer to come up with a new Saints Row pitch, supposedly conceived as a prequel to the whole franchise. As we see from the exchange above, it would appear that talks have since fallen through, with, as Stockman alleges, Embracer completely ignoring him and his ideas about a new Saints Row game.

Stockman himself shared this in a Reddit post on the SR subreddit, saying he was "asked to create a pitch for a Saints Row reboot." This would have been a second reboot after the first one was bashed by both critics and players alike.

"My dreams for this game just became a little more than just dreams," Stockman remarked, adding he was "going back to my roots." However, it seems that they will remain dreams after all.

Embracer has accrued a lot of bad rep over the years as a corporate giant that loves to pull the trigger on projects, and not in the positive sense. It has closed down many studios in the past, following rapid acquisitions of some of the industry's most beloved IPs and studios. It hasn't really done much with most of them, and Saints Row is certainly one of the most ill-fated of its roster.

On the other hand, players believe this franchise should not have gone the way it has, given that Rockstar really scaled back the frequency of its releases. The open-world crime sandbox game, as Saints Row titles were, is quite empty at the moment, with a void just waiting to be filled. Way back when, this franchise had to trade blows with GTA on the regular, but now it would stand uncontested—that is, until GTA 6 comes out.

"The fact that GTA has gone from 'yearly' to 'once a decade' has really opened up the 'open world crime simulator' market," one user on Reddit wrote. "Yet there is almost no company that wants to use the open spot," they added.

Others think GTA Online served that purpose and would've been an issue for the likes of Saints Row, but I believe the latter did have quite the opportunity in the last decade or so, fumbling it spectacularly, as Embracer tends to do.

The post We might never get another Saints Row game, former director reveals: ‘I think the franchise is dead’ appeared first on Destructoid.

ARC Raiders, even though it's a PVP game at heart, can just as easily be described as PVP, on account of there being countless, mindless robots roaming the topside world and waiting for unassuming raiders to stumble into them.

However, despite their fundamental role in the game, we haven't really seen expansions to the original ARC roster. That is, until now.

Though previously teased in the 2026 roadmap for ARC Raiders, Embark has now given us the first actual trailer for this new murder machine. We don't actually see the thing, as the video only depicts several stormy scenes across the game's maps, but we do get to hear it. And the sounds that it produces are as ominous as they come, with this strange "Firefly" ARC likely being of the prowling kind, probably lying in wait among the foliage in which maps like Dam Battlegrounds and The Blue Gate are totally covered.

This is one of the first major ARC additions to the game. We've seen several others in the game that, unfortunately, do not appear as actual enemies, such as the Barons (only showing up as husks) or the theorized Kings or Emperors (that we see walking in the distance on The Blue Gate, towering over the horizon). It is only a matter of time before we get even more of these robots roaming the world, perhaps in special raid events where cooperation and teamwork will have to triumph over personal interest if victory is to be achieved.

As for the Firefly itself, some have already theorized that it could look like a snake, which would fall in line with my assumption that it's a predator or some other kind of silent killer meant to punish careless traversal through the moss-covered post-apocalypse. No exact release date for the Firefly has been given, but it's bound to come as part of the Shrouded Sky update on Feb. 26. Another ARC, or "ARC Threat," is to come in March, potentially expanding the roster even further.

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Phil Spencer is exiting Xbox as chief executive after spending 25 years at Xbox and over a decade at the helm. Hewill be replaced by the president of Microsoft's CoreAI division, Asha Sharma, who joined the company in 2024.

This major shakeup was confirmed to IGN by anonymous sources, as the information hasn't yet been cleared for the public. Spencer's retirement from Xbox's top position is going into effect on Feb. 23, next Monday. However, he is to remain in an advisory role to the new Xbox chief, Asha Sharma, until at least the summer so as to assure a "smooth handoff."

Sharma is to be named as CEO of Microsoft Gaming, while Xbox Game Studios chief Matt Booty will be promoted to CCO, a position from which he will closely cooperate with Sharma.

Spencer said in an internal email that he had been considering retirement for a while now, communicating the idea to Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella. "From that moment, we aligned on approaching this transition with intention, ensuring stability, and strengthening the foundation we’ve built," he wrote.

He is firm in his belief that Sharma is the right choice to lead the company following his departure.

"Working with her over the past several months has given me tremendous confidence. She brings genuine curiosity, clarity, and a deep commitment to understanding players, creators, and the decisions that shape our future. We know this is an important moment for our fans, partners, and team, and we’re committed to getting it right," he said.

He added that he'll advise Sharma during this transitory period until the summer.

Sharma also wrote an internal email to Microsoft staff, promising to reassess what makes Xbox tick, what works, and what does not, emphasizing "great games" as a core tenet. She does have a lot of experience in high leadership positions, with backgrounds at Meta, where she was the VP of Product and Engineering, as well as Intercart, where she held a COO position.

"My first job is simple: understand what makes this work and protect it. That starts with three commitments. First, great games. Everything begins here. We must have great games beloved by players before we do anything. Unforgettable characters, stories that make us feel, innovative game play, and creative excellence. We will empower our studios, invest in iconic franchises, and back bold new ideas. We will take risks. We will enter new categories and markets where we can add real value, grounded in what players care about most," she said.

"Second, the return of Xbox. We will recommit to our core Xbox fans and players, those who have invested with us for the past 25 years, and to the developers who build the expansive universes and experiences that are embraced by players across the world. We will celebrate our roots with a renewed commitment to Xbox starting with console which has shaped who we are. It connects us to the players and fans who invest in Xbox, and to the developers who build ambitious experiences for it," Sharma added.

Finally, Sharma concluded that Xbox will not approach the future of gaming and its franchises as "static IP to milk and monetize," but rather focus on "build[ing] a shared platform and tools that empower developers and players to create and share their own stories."

"As monetization and AI evolve and influence this future, we will not chase short-term efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop. Games are and always will be art, crafted by humans, and created with the most innovative technology provided by us."

Those are some strong words and encouraging ideas, if clashing with Sharma's background as Microsoft's AI executive.

The post Phil Spencer retiring as head of Xbox, to be replaced by one of Microsoft’s AI presidents: ‘We know this is an important moment’ appeared first on Destructoid.

With God of War Ragnarok concluding Kratos' Norse story for now, players have been discussing which setting the series will go to next. As a precedent has been set by the second series' move from Greece to Scandinavia, many believe a third duology or trilogy would do the same, this time choosing yet another pantheon.

For a long while, many have believed that this pantheon would be Egypt. In fact, I remember many years ago, before 2018's God of War was announced, how folks were absolutely certain that Egypt was the next stage of the saga, following Kratos' ambiguous end at the conclusion of God of War 3. Those sentiments have remained alive and well since, and even though they were dispelled for a while by God of War 2018 and Ragnarok, they never really went away.

And it would appear that GoW Ragnarok's files confirm Egypt as the next stop for Kratos or, at the very least, Atreus.

A Reddit user named TheMorse_ searched through Ragnarok's files and discovered a batch of cut dialogue that never made it into the final game. In the scene, Atreus, a character called Mau, Athena, and a mysterious robed character engage in conversation. Atreus urges Mau to follow him somewhere, with Mau only responding "mau," as if it were a cat. Athena says there is some problem, and a robed figure remarks that "the white snake will eat you" in Greek.

"Mau" is the Egyptian word for cat, as TheMorse_ explains, an onomatopoeic term originating from the very sound the animal produces. What's more, Mau is one of the manifestations of the Egyptian god Ra. While small hints, it would appear that Atreus was planned to have a run-in with the Egyptian pantheon in some capacity, which could have been cut to preserve the ambiguity of God of War's next location.

Athena and the robed figure appear hostile to Atreus, as the latter says, "One failed us" and "One rejected us," sentences that TheMorse_ believes refer to Odin and Atreus, respectively.

Some of the replies analyzed the text and said that the "white snake" in question could be the Egyptian god Apophis, also known as the "Eater of Souls," as TheMorse_ explains.

This is one of the biggest and most conclusive finds related to the future of God of War. While everyone seems confident that it'll take place in Egypt, there haven't been many concrete hints toward it. Ragnarok and God of War 2018 both show small snippets of ancient Egyptian culture, though nothing significant enough to indicate an entire subfranchise being set there.

At any rate, the next God of War is likely going for a change of scenery. Whether that's Egypt or another place remains to be seen, but it does appear as the most promising candidate.

The post God of War leakers pulled off their signature move and found files in Ragnarok that could be a clue for the series’ next setting appeared first on Destructoid.

Resident Evil Requiem is only a week away, but that hasn't stopped numerous leakers from sharing the game's content, including major story beats, with everyone. From streams to Reddit posts to clips on X, RE9 is being spread like wildfire, and it's not even out yet.

And Capcom has had enough of that. In a short statement on X, the company has kindly asked players to stop sharing the game around before it launches on Feb. 27, as it wishes for "everyone to enjoy the game's story and experience as much as possible."

Before the leaks, significant plot points were spoken of in discussions and theories, with fans believing this could be one of the most consequential Resident Evil stories ever told.

I'm in that boat and would never want the surprise to be spoiled for me, because what would even be the point of playing the game?

Those who do not comply and continue to release high-profile leaks will feel the wrath of Capcom's lawyers, who seem very trigger-happy now that the cat's really out of the bag. "Our legal department will continue to issue takedowns and deletion notices for leaks in order to preserve your day-one experience," the company stated.

Resident Evil Requiem comes out on Feb. 27, i.e., next weekend, as of this article. People are so restless that they couldn't have borne to wait another seven days to see things for themselves, but just had to indulge in leaks and spoilers and, what's worse, in spoiling it for others.

The post Capcom kindly asks everyone to stop spoiling Resident Evil Requiem: ‘We really want everyone to enjoy the game’s story’ appeared first on Destructoid.

Ross Scott, one of the greatest advocates for gamers' consumer rights, as well as one of the main proponents of the Stop Killing Games initiative, has shared loads of new information about the movement ahead of the organizers' meeting with the EU Commission on Feb. 23.

In a video posted on Feb. 19, Scott revealed information about the past half a year or so, commenting on all sorts of oddities, hiccups, and hitches he and the initiative's organizers have run into since starting to collect signatures. Scott said that the EU Commission seemed primed to run against the initiative in some older meetings because it believed that the initiative's push for more regulation did not overlap with its "deregulatory agenda."

On top of that, Scott says the Commission parroted talking points that could have originated from the industry itself, such as referring to games as "living, breathing things" that get constantly updated, which would explain why, without updates, they would cease to function. The organizers countered the point by saying that phones get updates also, but do not stop working once support has ended.

Ross said that the EU Commission leaked an article before deleting it immediately last summer, while the initiative was still collecting signatures. In the article, the Commission appeared to voice support for positions adjacent to the initiative, but only as a non-binding statement, which would prompt the industry to self-regulate instead of new legislation being drafted to enforce these rules.

Naturally, Scott voiced concerns over how the meeting will go with the EU Commission on Feb. 23, but based on what he spoke of, he doesn't seem to be convinced it'll be great.

Despite that, however, Scott also revealed that the initiative allegedly has majority support in the EU Parliament, which would be a major win for the movement. Even if it were to pass there, a lot of extra steps would need to be taken, but it would certainly be a significant step forward. In Poland, the organization has strong support from both the government and the opposition, with some other governing bodies also nominally supporting the movement.

Scott believes that Stop Killing Games is on the path to victory, no matter what happens, but that one path would be less painful than the other. He hopes that a new law will be drafted in the EU to protect gamers specifically from one malpractice, i.e., that of shutting games down indiscriminately and basically robbing players of their property (copies).

A new NGO is going to be founded to help lobby for the initiative in Europe, and a new USA-based NGO is also going to be propped up, hopefully to bring the fight to America as well.

If new legislation cannot be passed or introduced to existing frameworks, then Scott says only one thing remains: enforcing existing laws. This would turn the gaming industry into a hellscape, with lawsuits flooding every single court in every single EU member state because, as he explains, everything would have to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis in each individual country.

That would take an incredibly long time, but also potentially lead to harsher punishments and stricter rules than what the initiative's more lenient approach would require. If companies like Ubisoft or other EU-based gaming giants were found in violation of decades-old laws, then the consequences could be rather dire

Be it as it may, the initiative has a tremendous amount of support in the EU and among national governments. Whether the EU Commission itself becomes a hurdle remains to be seen, but it's almost certain that the initiative is only getting started on its path to reshaping global gamer rights.

The post Ross Scott drops tons of updates on Stop Killing Games, revealing EU Commission oddities and announcing EU Parliament majority support appeared first on Destructoid.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Sony has closed its first-party studio Bluepoint Games, which was known for developing the PS5's launch title, Demon's Souls Remake. Over 70 developers will lose their jobs as a result, with Sony issuing only a blunt remark in a brief corporate statement.

This closure comes after Sony performed a "business review" recently, though the exact reasoning is still unclear. Sony only briefly commented on the matter in a statement issued to Bloomberg, where they thanked the studio's employees and described them as an "incredibly talented team" that has "delivered exceptional experiences for the PlayStation community."

The sudden closure of Bluepoint has drawn a lot of criticism from fans of the studio, who've compared the situation with Microsoft's shutdown of Tango Gameworks. Though Tango was saved from total collapse by Krafton, it seems Bluepoint will be going away for good, which some players couldn't explain: "Why not just let the studio go independent again?" one Reddit user questioned.

Others blamed Sony's management, or rather the lack thereof, believing Bluepoint had some of the most talented developers of all the studios working under Sony's first-party umbrella.

At any rate, it's certainly a loss for gamers.

Bluepoint Games was founded in 2006 and was best known for working on remasters and remakes of popular franchises, bringing them up to date with modern standards. Its most notable projects include Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, Shadow of the Colossus remake, and the PS5 launch title, Demon's Souls Remake.

The post Sony goes all ‘I don’t recall saying goodbye’ with shock shutdown of Demon’s Souls remake studio Bluepoint Games appeared first on Destructoid.

Crimson Desert is slowly shaping up to be one of the biggest games of 2026. Made by developers of the Black Desert MMORPG, this action-adventure takes place in a stunning fantasy world, with a strong focus on combat, exploration, and narrative.

A fully-fledged title and not a free-to-play live-service game, Crimson Desert won't feature a microtransaction store, at least not a cosmetics shop. This was confirmed by Pearl Abyss marketing director Will Powers, who highlighted that as a "premium experience," Crimson Desert's monetization model hinges on the price you pay for the game itself.

As he bluntly puts it, the game alone is the only transaction, providing players with a vast open world and enough value that microtransactions of any kind aren't really necessary.

"This is made to be a premium experience that you buy, and you enjoy the world, and not something for microtransactions. [Crimson Desert] is a premium experience [and] that is the transaction. Full stop," Powers noted in a recent podcast.

In fact, Powers is so proud of the world Pearl Abyss has created that he thinks it's the game's biggest selling point, saying he never played a "truer" open-world title.

Whatever the case, Crimson Desert does look promising. It might not be a traditional open-world RPG that we've been seeing around every corner, and that may be for the best. A big environment to walk around and have fun in is more than enough, so long as the studio makes it interesting.

And if Powers' words are anything to go by, it seems they've nailed it.

The post Crimson Desert won’t have a microtransaction shop because it’s a ‘premium experience’ appeared first on Destructoid.

The Elder Scrolls 6, announced in 2018, is probably Bethesda's most anticipated game of all time. It would be a return to form for the company, which has spent a lot of the last seven years on Fallout and Starfield, among other projects, slowly but surely chipping away at its original franchise away from the spotlight.

In a recent interview with Kinda Funny Games, Bethesda creative director Todd Howard said the studio is going to return to its "classic style," for which the company has become known. The Elder Scrolls is the poster child of Bethesda Game Studios, while the other games it has worked on, i.e., Fallout 76 and Starfield, were "creative detours," Howard believes.

That classic style is characterized by Bethesda's recognizable approach to fantasy RPG elements and, naturally, the use of the Creation Engine (a new version, of course). Though it'll stay true to what fans expect, a lot of "innovation" will come as well.

And this brings me to the meat of this featurette: Bethesda has a ton to innovate on if it's to make The Elder Scrolls feel great again.

As time progressed, Bethesda increasingly embraced a shallower, more approachable, and less complex RPG style that favors quantity over quality and believes that so long as players have things to "do" in a game, that should be enough. Because of that, we got Skyrim, which ditched stats and any kind of build complexity in favor of a streamlined set of categories aimed at removing a proper class system.

That game also had countless fetch quests, shallow "go there and do that" types of assignments, stories that rarely overlap, side missions that don't make sense in the grand narrative of the game, as well as faction quest chains that don't take your character into account, allowing them to become contradictory as well (becoming a member of multiple factions at once, for example).

The game almost completely did away with roles to be played, remaining an RPG in name only.

Skyrim isn't the worst offender, however, as Bethesda's subsequent titles had even more of these flaws. But, then again, it seems Howard considers these "creative detours," so I'll refer to their last TES game instead.

Though it pains me to accept the Creation Engine at all, I think it could be overlooked so long as Bethesda did away with these "classic" aspects of its design philosophy, not to mention the jank and the bugs the company has come to be associated with.

The post Todd Howard says Bethesda is going back to its ‘classic style’ with Elder Scrolls 6—so please get rid of the endless fetch quests and the shallow stories appeared first on Destructoid.

AI, if we can even label it as intelligence at all, has become a real burden on the tech world. Well, that's at least if you're not a corporate giant with billions of dollars around to buy RAM with. The increasing demand for AI, no matter how or where, is draining the world's memory supply, and consoles could be hit particularly hard once backups dry up.

But the PlayStation 5 is set to remain at its proposed price point for the foreseeable future, or so indicates a report by Push Square, which went through Sony's recent earnings call.

According to that outlet, Sony Group CFO Lin Tao said the company has enough RAM to continue manufacturing PlayStations at a stable rate throughout this year and aims to further negotiate with suppliers to ensure there's always enough memory.

But with AI giants spending untold billions to buy out undiced wafers (memory that hasn't yet even been made into separate DRAM, VRAM, or other types), supply is running dramatically low, even for Sony to maneuver around. The bubble keeps expanding and will likely continue to do so throughout 2026 and probably 2027 as well.

If it happens to run out of memory, Sony has plans to offset PlayStation 5 price increases by putting the burden of funding onto, you've guessed it, the player. "Monetizing the installed base," i.e., finding ways to get more money out of existing users, will be Sony's backup strategy in the case of memory supply issues, Push Square writes.

Tao mentioned "growing software and network revenue," which could indicate a bigger cut for Sony per sale (increasing game prices), ramping up PS Plus subscription costs, or introducing new monetization schemes that we haven't seen yet. At the end of the day, it won't matter because prices, in some respect will rise despite our best wishes. The only variable in the equation is what exactly will cost more, the console itself or the stuff on it.

I won't play smart and try to figure out which would be better, because it's coming out of our pockets nonetheless, and all because people want to make videos of a black-and-white baby singing Chinese songs.

What a world.

The post If Sony runs out of RAM, PlayStation 5 will be sustained by increasingly ‘monetizing’ the users, according to report appeared first on Destructoid.

Resident Evil Requiem comes out on Feb. 27, or in just over a week as of this article. Some fans, though, are so excited that they've found ways to play the game earlier. And instead of keeping hush-hush about it, they're sharing it with the world by streaming, recording, and uploading clips from the game.

To put it bluntly: spoilers are everywhere. Just logging into X and Reddit the other day, I found a person running a full-blown stream of RE9, allegedly switching accounts every day to avoid Sony's righteous banhammer. It unfortunately showed me some scenes I would have liked to experience for myself in the comfort of my own PC and horror-primed OLED screen. But alas, I got spoiled, which doesn't mean you should be, too.

My advice to you would be to completely ignore any and all Resident Evil-related channels. Whether that's on X or Reddit (YouTube should be safe because you can actually see the thumbnails, but even the,n Shorts is booby-trapped), you'd do well to mute these communities for at least the next 10 days or so. Avoiding any leak-oriented part of the internet is highly advised, as I came across the stream above exactly in one such community.

Leaks have been a plague on the video game industry for a while now, with some people just unwilling to wait for a bit longer before they engage with a title. I understand the hype, and I'm very excited to play the game, but for the love of God, let's keep it civil for one more week. There's no need to know all of these things upfront or before they're ready for launch.

Stay civil, stay vigilant, and avoid spoilers (and spoiling) as much as you can.

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While Sony has been porting many of its games to the PC platform, especially in the last few years, the Xbox hasn't had as much luck. Despite Microsoft's embrace of a multiplatform approach, Sony seems to prefer exclusivity and the PC at most. Or so Insomniac Games would love to believe, firmly denying that its Spider-Man games would ever be ported to Xbox.

As per tech4gamers, Insomniac Games very bluntly stated that in an exchange on X, telling a fan that an Xbox port of Spider-Man is "not likely." Naturally, Insomniac's Marvel games are a Sony powerhouse, funded, produced, and published by the Japanese gaming giant, which unsurprisingly prefers to keep its first-party games in-house and available on its own platform.

However, Sony has increasingly played with multiplatform releases, porting games or even launching them on the PlayStation and PC simultaneously (i.e., the case of Helldivers 2). Insomniac itself once believed that Spider-Man would remain a first-party PlayStation exclusive, given that it's backed and published by Sony, only for the games to eventually come out on Steam.

Microsoft's embrace of multiplatformity seems to have also triggered similar sentiments at Sony. After the massive success of Helldivers 2's simultaneous launch (that, too, was published by Sony), the company seems more eager to do multiplatform releases. Microsoft, as I've said, only helped grow those sentiments, porting its own major first-party franchises over to the PlayStation, likely in anticipation of Sony doing the same.

It remains to be seen whether the Marvel games are part of this deal. A while ago, Sony did say that some franchises were console sellers first and foremost, and that porting them over would adversely affect PlayStation sales.

While that might be true, franchises don't sell so well all the time, and porting even the most valuable games would be a smart move after some time spent in exclusivity (after sales start dipping).

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Roblox has been no stranger to controversies lately, as several lawsuits have been leveled against the game on the grounds that it does not do enough to protect children from predatory behavior. Though primarily frequented by very young kids, Roblox allegedly does not do enough to keep them from harm, or so claims the most recent of several suits filed against Roblox Corporation, this time by Los Angeles County.

On Feb. 19, Roblox Corporation was sued by LA County because "children in Los Angeles County have been repeatedly exposed to sexually explicit content, exploitation, and grooming on Roblox," as the company has "put corporate profit over the safety of children." The game enjoys a considerable audience of very young children, and it "has a responsibility to keep kids safe." However, LA County alleges that "instead it has allowed its platform to become a place where children can be exposed to grooming and exploitation."

Roblox has since responded to the lawsuit, saying that "no system is perfect" but that its "commitment to safety never ends," PC Gamer wrote. "We strongly dispute the claims in this lawsuit and will defend against it vigorously," the company added. "Roblox is built with safety at its core, and we continue to evolve and strengthen our protections every day."

"We have advanced safeguards that monitor our platform for harmful content and communications, and users cannot send or receive images via chat, avoiding one of the most prevalent opportunities for misuse seen elsewhere online," the statement continues.

"We take swift action against anyone found to violate our safety rules and work closely with law enforcement to support investigations and help hold bad actors accountable," they conclude.

This isn't the first lawsuit of this kind Roblox has found itself embroiled in. Last August, Roblox was sued by the State of Louisiana, which argued similar points as LA County. Back then, state representatives wrote that "[Roblox Corporation] has permitted and perpetuated an online environment in which child predators thrive, directly contributing to the widespread victimization of minor children in Louisiana."

Criminal subpoenas were issued to Roblox Corporation by the State of Florida last October, which labeled the game as "a breeding ground for predators."

On top of it all, Roblox Corporation chief executive David Baszucki flaunted the idea of betting in Roblox, claiming it could be implemented educationally in the game, stirring further controversy and causing people to doubt the company's commitment to protecting children.

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Windrose, an open-world co-op pirate action-adventure game, has accrued over one million wishlists so far, even though it doesn't even have a set release date. Its comprehensive demo seems to have captivated such a broad audience that folks just can't get enough, and having tried it out myself, I kind of see why.

Windrose's demo came out on Feb. 17. Since then, droves of players have hopped on to check what it's all about, discovering an incredibly fun and deep survival crafting experience set during the Golden Age of Piracy, i.e., sometime during the early 18th century. At its core, Windrose is very reminiscent of Valheim. Hell, it'd be difficult to determine if they were made by different people.

You're stranded in a strange land, have to craft and build to sustain yourself, and then eventually expand and start sailing the high seas in search of new fortunes. It's a simple gameplay loop, one that Valheim popularized and almost perfected. But where Windrose stands out is its setting, as Valheim's celestial Nordic backdrop (while amazing) seems to have been a poor choice for such a game compared to the West Indies.

Taking on the role of a crestfallen captain stranded alone on an island and having to build yourself back up is a more interesting pipeline than Vikings ending up in some form of the afterlife, at least to me. On top of that, Windrose refines the combat and gathering mechanics, utilizing the power of the Unreal Engine to combine stunning visuals with grounded movement and fighting. I know a lot of people are averse to hearing those two words, and I'm wholeheartedly with you.

However, the devs here knew what they were doing, and instead of slapping on a generic photorealistic graphical style and calling it a day, they actually decided to pursue a unique art direction, which has ultimately paid off.

With over one million wishlists total so far, and the demo having been out for just five days as of this article, I have a feeling that we're yet again looking at a potential indie smash hit that is to blow AAA competition out of the water. In fact, I think Ubisoft is particularly feeling the weight of Windrose's success, given the abject failure that was Skull and Bones.

That game purports to do much of the same as Windrose, but generally fails on all accounts, even though it has the incredible Assassin's Creed Black Flag piracy system serving as its basis.

An indie in the West Indies is probably going to be crowned king of pirate games, and certainly of survival crafting titles, seeing as that genre has a particular knack at totally overwhelming the gaming sphere (just remember how well Palworld did back when it first launched).

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Xbox has a new face at the top: Asha Sharma, a former president of Microsoft's AI division who just really wants to get into the gaming sphere. Since her appointment was confirmed yesterday, Sharma has been attempting to bring herself closer to the gaming community and is trying to engage players on meaningful topics.

One such subject was the question of the greatest games of all time, which Sharma asked folks to share in a Feb. 21 post on X. "Top three greatest games ever? Why?" Sharma posted, saying her own favorites were Halo, Valheim, and GoldenEye. She seems quite an old head at heart, and her inquiry got me thinking, too, of what my three favorite games were.

I always disliked these kinds of questions, to be completely honest with you. They put me on the spot and required me to select out of a countless number of experiences the three that struck me the most. And it's fine to select one or two as examples of what a great game is, but quite difficult, if not outright impossible, to choose three that are ultimately "the best" ever.

Every good game is good in its own way and is appealing to me for very specific reasons. But, if I had to choose at gunpoint, I would say The Witcher 3, Modern Warfare 2, and Warcraft 3. Don't take these picks at face value, though, and I might have a different opinion (actually, I probably will have a different opinion) once this article is done and published, and then I'll moan and complain that I should've picked something else.

But, be it as it may, I love these three games for very particular reasons. Being a fan of classical fantasy, The Witcher 3 spoke to me at a fundamental level, allowing me to indulge myself in a world that is so different from everything else in the fantasy genre. While it does incorporate Tolkienesque elements of elves and dwarves, it mixes in that strong sense of sword and sorcery from the early 20th century, which turns it into a heroic fiction type of story rather than the high epic fantasy that most works in the genre aim to become.

On top of that, The Witcher 3 is a rare Slavic fantasy story, and being Montenegrin myself, I simply have to love it for that reason alone, if not for all the other great things that it does. There's just something about bogs and marshes and witches and Slavo-Germanic fairy tales being brought to life in the most grotesque ways possible that really makes me want to go back and replay it time and again. It's the best game of all time, written almost perfectly, with a world that is unlike anything else in video games.

Now that that yap is over, I can quickly summarize Modern Warfare 2 and Warcraft 3. One is the definitive shooter of my childhood, a game I couldn't play for the longest time because my family couldn't spend much money on a good-enough PC, but one that I stuck with the longest after I finally got a solid machine in 2013. Its story is my favorite of all of the three original MW games, and the multiplayer side is so flashy and satisfying that I find myself going back even today.

And finally, Warcraft 3: the best RTS of all time. A game that spawned so many other games I would come to enjoy (League of Legends, Dota 2), and an RTS experience that understood how storytelling works and that RPG elements can and will synergize perfectly with a strategy formula, so long as the overarching narrative is good.

It revolutionized the RTS scene, and no game has succeeded in doing what it did, with Blizzard itself ditching it in favor of WoW, an epic tale that simply never "hit" the same as the original Warcraft 3.

So, now that you know my picks, what are you choosing? Sharma seems to want to know as much about us as possible, most likely not because she wants to train an AI based on our tastes, but rather to become as familiar with her consumer base as possible.

What are your greatest games of all time? You can name just one, or if you have more than three, please do share it with me (if not Xbox's new chief).

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Phil Spencer is officially exiting his role at Xbox after spending over a decade at the helm. He's been with Microsoft for nearly 40 years, having joined as an intern all the way back in 1988. His replacement is a former president of one of Microsoft's AI divisions, and though she staunchly denied AI's involvement in the future of Microsoft Gaming, not everyone is convinced.

The new CEO of Xbox will be Asha Sharma, the recent president of Microsoft's CoreAI division. She joined the company in 2024 and doesn't really have much gaming background to speak of. What she does have is experience in leadership positions, having been a COO at Intercart and the president of Meta's product and engineering department before eventually hopping into Microsoft's AI side.

Sharma is a firm supporter of artificial intelligence and its real-world applications. In fact, she thinks AI solutions in medicine and healthcare could potentially reverse the effects of declining global fertility rates, saying in one podcast that AI solutions in the UK improved pregnancy rates while "cutting costs at the same time." She also praised GPT-5 for its role in improving healthcare, as well as how AI is being used at Stanford to amplify tumor reviews.

To put it simply: Sharma is quite supportive of artificial intelligence solutions, but, for whatever reason, wants us to believe it's out of the question at Xbox.

In an internal email shared with Microsoft staff amid her appointment as Xbox head, Sharma said the following: "As monetization and AI evolve and influence this future, we will not chase short-term efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop. Games are and always will be art, crafted by humans, and created with the most innovative technology provided by us."

This bit, while encouraging, could be taken as a string of recognizable buzzwords strung together for immediate effect, rather than to reflect long-term strategies. I'm not the only one smelling a rat: most of the people responding to Sharma's new position are having a hard time believing such a staunch AI supporter would declare the technology verboten at her new job.

"I don't want to be a doomer, but this doesn't look good," one Reddit user wrote in response to Sharma's prior tenure as Core AI president. "Having an AI exec in charge does not breed confidence," said another. "Something's really fucking terrifying to me about someone from AI taking over as head of the agency," wrote another still.

The sentiments among gamers are very gloomy, with many thinking this could spell the end of Xbox as we know it.

Spencer's tenure as Xbox president wasn't the best, but his role in turning the tide for Xbox One, as well as in introducing the Game Pass service and multiplatformity as a default for publishers, will be remembered quite fondly. A lot of bad has happened in between, however, but I don't think we've seen the worst of it yet.

Sharma could have been quite sincere in her email, and she does seem to want to engage with gaming in a different way, but her career doesn't inspire hope that Xbox will once again become the beacon of the industry. AI, no matter what, is a fundamental stain on art.

The post Phil Spencer’s replacement by an AI evangelist at Xbox has players fearing for the future of the company: ‘I don’t want to be a doomer, but this doesn’t look good’ appeared first on Destructoid.

Saints Row is one of those franchises that just about anyone who has played video games knows. It's a staple of the olden days, especially its second entry. However, following the abject failure of its revival and the closure of the studio that made it, many believed, myself included, that Saints Row was done for good.

Hope remained in the period following, though, that the franchise could still be saved. Well, according to the original Saints Row's design director, Chris Stockman, the series is probably "dead." As posted by X user papaRPG, Stockman remarked on the state of Saints Row in a Discord exchange with a fan. During the conversation, he bluntly said that he believes the series is probably never coming back.

"Honestly, I think the franchise is dead," he wrote. "I get the sense that Embracer has zero ability to do anything with it."

"I wish things were different. I tried my best to offer a path forward, but they ghosted me," Stockman added.

Embracer Group owned subsidiaries that themselves held ownership of Saints Row developer Volition, which was acquired by Deep Silver and then by Gearbox, both of whom were under the Embracer umbrella. While Gearbox eventually got itself sold to 2K, Volition unfortunately had to go the hard way and was fully closed down following the utter failure of Saints Row's first and only reboot title.

Stockman was supposedly meant to save the franchise in subsequent years, with papaRPG writing last October that he was contracted by Embracer to come up with a new Saints Row pitch, supposedly conceived as a prequel to the whole franchise. As we see from the exchange above, it would appear that talks have since fallen through, with, as Stockman alleges, Embracer completely ignoring him and his ideas about a new Saints Row game.

Stockman himself shared this in a Reddit post on the SR subreddit, saying he was "asked to create a pitch for a Saints Row reboot." This would have been a second reboot after the first one was bashed by both critics and players alike.

"My dreams for this game just became a little more than just dreams," Stockman remarked, adding he was "going back to my roots." However, it seems that they will remain dreams after all.

Embracer has accrued a lot of bad rep over the years as a corporate giant that loves to pull the trigger on projects, and not in the positive sense. It has closed down many studios in the past, following rapid acquisitions of some of the industry's most beloved IPs and studios. It hasn't really done much with most of them, and Saints Row is certainly one of the most ill-fated of its roster.

On the other hand, players believe this franchise should not have gone the way it has, given that Rockstar really scaled back the frequency of its releases. The open-world crime sandbox game, as Saints Row titles were, is quite empty at the moment, with a void just waiting to be filled. Way back when, this franchise had to trade blows with GTA on the regular, but now it would stand uncontested—that is, until GTA 6 comes out.

"The fact that GTA has gone from 'yearly' to 'once a decade' has really opened up the 'open world crime simulator' market," one user on Reddit wrote. "Yet there is almost no company that wants to use the open spot," they added.

Others think GTA Online served that purpose and would've been an issue for the likes of Saints Row, but I believe the latter did have quite the opportunity in the last decade or so, fumbling it spectacularly, as Embracer tends to do.

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