Gaming
Invincible VS adds Universa and The Immortal on June 30 to open its first DLC season
The first paid characters for Skybound's Invincible fighter land June 30, and Quarter Up laid out the rest of its 2026 plan to go with them.
John Spencer
Gaming
Games, studios, and the culture around play.
Gaming
Ubisoft Barcelona workers will strike six times in three weeks after the studio cut 51 jobs
Staff at Ubisoft Barcelona have called six strikes between June 30 and July 16, organized through the Video Game Union Coordinating Committee, after Ubisoft confirmed 51 layoffs at the studio.
John Spencer
Gaming
Halo: Campaign Evolved comes to PlayStation 5 on July 28, the first Halo game on Sony hardware
Halo is launching on a PlayStation console for the first time. Halo: Campaign Evolved arrives July 28 across Xbox, PC, Steam, and PS5, day one on Game Pass, with a Standard Edition at $49.99.
John Spencer
Gaming
Bandai Namco announced Tekken! Cartoon, a chibi spin on its fighting game series
Bandai Namco's teaser introduces Tekken! Cartoon, a super-deformed animated take on the fighting series, with a crew attached and almost no detail on what it actually is.
John Spencer
Gaming
Sega Is Re-Releasing Sonic 1 and 2 as $99.99 Genesis Cartridges
Sega's 35th-anniversary plans include $99.99 physical cartridges of two of the most common games on the Genesis. The math is rough.
John Spencer
Gaming
Gaming
The Elder Scrolls: Blades Goes Dark Tuesday. The Game That Made Chest Timers a Punchline Is Going Out for Free.
The Elder Scrolls: Blades is delisted and its servers shut down June 30, taking the whole always-online game with them. It is a quiet end for the title that turned chest timers into a monetization punchline, even though Bethesda eventually scrapped them.
John Spencer
Gaming
Warzone Pulled Its Store From PS4 and Xbox One Yesterday. The Servers Go Next.
As of June 25, last-gen Warzone players can't buy anything in the store. They can still play until Modern Warfare 4's first season. After that, PS4 and Xbox One are out.
John Spencer
Gaming
Avatar Legends Locks July 23, and Its Real Pitch Happens at EVO Tonight
Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game is locked for July 23 on PS5, Xbox, and PC, and developer Gameplay Group International takes the EVO 2026 Showcase stage tonight to reveal its first Year One DLC character.
John Spencer
Gaming
Riot Is Putting Its Esports on Kick, the Platform Stake's Founders Own
Riot is adding Kick as an official broadcast and co-streaming partner for LoL, Valorant, and TFT, beginning at MSI 2026. Kick is owned by the founders of the crypto casino Stake, which is exactly the kind of money Riot has spent years keeping off its broadcasts.
John Spencer
Gaming
Wildgate Is Winding Down a Year After Launch. This Time, Dreamhaven Isn't Cutting Staff.
A year after launch, Moonshot Games is ending active development on its crew-based shooter Wildgate. One last update lands in July. Unlike January, no new layoffs are planned.
John Spencer
Gaming
New World: Aeternum Cut Its 3v3 Arena to 1v1. There Aren't Enough Players to Fill It.
Amazon's New World: Aeternum dropped its 3v3 Arena to a 1v1 duel and cut group requirements across the board. With roughly 550 players left and a shutdown set for January 2027, the patch notes read like a goodbye.
John Spencer
Gaming
Xbox Is Raising Console Prices Again on August 1. The Series X Now Tops Out at $800.
Xbox is raising Series X and Series S prices worldwide on August 1, 2026. It is the third increase in 15 months, the 2TB Series X is being discontinued, and Microsoft is blaming a memory and storage crisis it expects to get worse.
John Spencer
Gaming
Tim Sweeney Calls Steam's AI Disclosure 'Really Irresponsible.' Epic Is Building AI Into Unreal Engine 6.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney called Valve's mandatory Steam AI disclosure 'really irresponsible.' Here's what the policy actually requires, and why the guy making the loudest case against it has a stake in the answer.
John Spencer