🎮 Daily Gaming Digest — April 7, 2026

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Pokémon & Nintendo

Competitive Pokémon Player Stripped of Win for Celebrating Too Hard In one of the wildest competitive Pokémon stories in recent memory, player Firestar73 was demoted to second place at an Orlando Pokémon GO tournament after being hit with an "unsportsmanlike conduct" ruling for celebrating too enthusiastically. A tough lesson that in competitive Pokémon, keeping your cool matters just as much as keeping your win streak.

Mario Galaxy Movie Composer Secretly Wrote the Score from a Hospital Bed One of the most moving stories to come out of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie's release — the composer behind its exceptional score reportedly wrote much of it while hospitalized, telling no one on the production. "I didn't want to let anyone down," they said, and honestly, the result speaks for itself. The sequel wisely pulled back on licensed pop tracks in favor of this stunning original work.

New Limited-Time Switch 2 Bundle Offers a Saving on Mario Galaxy Riding the wave of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie's theatrical debut, Nintendo has launched a new limited-time Switch 2 offer featuring a small discount on Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel. Perfect timing if the movie left you itching to revisit the Comet Observatory.

Nintendo Switch 2 System Update 22.1.0 Is Now Live Following last month's major firmware overhaul, Nintendo has dropped a smaller but stable system update for both Switch 1 and Switch 2. Version 22.1.0 is a maintenance patch — nothing flashy, but keeping things running smooth.

Assassin's Creed Shadows Gets Mouse & Keyboard Support on Switch 2 Ubisoft is rolling out Title Update 1.1.10 for Assassin's Creed Shadows across all platforms this week, and the headline feature for Switch 2 owners is full mouse and keyboard support. It's a welcome addition that makes the hybrid console feel even more like a legitimate PC alternative.

Level-5 Announces 'Vision 2026' Showcase This Week Level-5 is finally ready to talk about what's next — the studio behind Professor Layton and Ni no Kuni will air its Vision 2026 presentation on YouTube later this week. After years of relative quiet in the West, this could be a big one.

The Eternal Life of Goldman Looks Absolutely Stunning A new gameplay trailer for The Eternal Life of Goldman just dropped on Nintendo of America's YouTube channel, and it looks phenomenal. This is one to keep firmly on your radar.

Capcom Teases Okami 20th Anniversary Celebrations Alongside Pragmata's launch this month, Capcom is gearing up to celebrate 20 years of Okami with anniversary events later in April. Brush up on your celestial techniques — Amaterasu's legacy is about to get the spotlight it deserves.

Zelda Movie May Have Found Its Composer An updated IMDB page is fueling rumors that the upcoming The Legend of Zelda movie from Nintendo and Columbia Pictures has locked in its composer. Details are thin, but break out the ocarinas — things are moving behind the scenes.

Frostpunk Coming to Nintendo Switch 11 bit studios announced during a special Frostpunk broadcast that the bleak survival city-builder Frostpunk is finally making the jump to Nintendo Switch. Managing your society's survival on the go sounds like the perfect kind of portable misery.

More Splatoon 3 Tracks Hit Nintendo Music The Nintendo Music app continues to expand, this time adding a fresh batch of Splatoon 3 tracks — described as "a side order of music." Squid Beatz fans, your playlists just got an upgrade.

Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream Gets New Trailer Hugh Morris is back and still clowning around in a new trailer for Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, continuing the rejected romance drama that made him the unlikely star of January's Nintendo Direct.

Best Roguelikes on Switch 1 & 2 Guide Updated Nintendo Life's definitive roguelike guide has been refreshed with new entries including Blue Prince and Caves of Qud. If you're looking for your next run-based obsession, this is your starting point.

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Fortnite

How to Find Chaos Cubes in Fortnite Chapter 7, Season 1 Fortnite Chapter Seven, Season One is throwing players into an elaborate series of scavenger hunts, and one of the trickier tasks involves tracking down hidden Chaos Cubes in and around New Sanctuary. These quests are part of a complex chain, so bring your explorer hat.

Healing Pools in Squibbly Shores — Here's How They Work One of the sneakier daily missions in Fortnite right now asks you to restore health or gain shields at the healing pools in Squibbly Shores. It's not immediately obvious how to trigger them, so if you've been running around confused, you're not alone.

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Call of Duty

OpenAI Reportedly Had an 'Insane' Plan Straight Out of Call of Duty In a story that reads like fiction, OpenAI reportedly kicked around a wild plan to pit world leaders against each other — a scheme so dramatic it's being compared to a Call of Duty villain's master plan. Life imitating art, or just Silicon Valley being Silicon Valley?

Community Debates: Which Post-MW2019 CoD Has the Best Multiplayer? The eternal Call of Duty debate is raging on Reddit — which game since Modern Warfare (2019) has the best multiplayer experience? Opinions are wildly mixed across MW2, MW3, and beyond, and honestly, there's no wrong answer (except yours, obviously).

Fans Want Extinction Mode Back — With Improvements The Call of Duty community is buzzing about a potential return of Extinction mode from COD: Ghosts, with players sharing detailed ideas on how to modernize and improve the alien-fighting co-op experience. It's a niche favorite that clearly left a lasting impression.

Is MW3 Still Playable in 2026? A question as old as time (or at least as old as the game): players are wondering if Modern Warfare 3 is still worth downloading, or if hacked lobbies and dwindling populations have made it a ghost town. The nostalgia is real.

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Arc Raiders

Arc Raiders Extraction Recreated in LEGO — And It's Incredible Two brothers (both 35+) spent their entire Easter holiday building an Arc Raiders extraction scene entirely out of childhood LEGO bricks. The dedication and creativity here is genuinely heartwarming — proof that gaming communities build amazing things, literally.

Community Pitches New Weapon: The Bow An Arc Raiders fan has pitched a detailed concept for a bow weapon — a silent, skill-based option that would reward precision and timing, with the option for explosive or elemental arrow types. It's the kind of community brainstorming that could genuinely shape the game's future.

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Indie Games

Japanese Indie Dev Takes Legal Action Over Missing Crowdfunding Money A Japanese indie developer is pursuing legal action after funds from a crowdfunding campaign allegedly went missing. The funding platform claims the money was "mistakenly wired to a different client," which is about as alarming as it sounds. A cautionary tale for the crowdfunding space.

Solo Dev Spotlight: Space Colony Simulator 'Stella Nova' A solo developer is going all-in on Stella Nova, a space colony simulator with a demo on the horizon. Check out the devlog at davesgames.io if you're into ambitious one-person passion projects — this one has real potential.

Floating Islands, Chicken Farms, and More from r/IndieGaming The indie scene is thriving this week: one dev is showing off gorgeous floating island terrain-shaping mechanics, while another launched Chicken Farm — a delightfully simple game about buying chickens, selling eggs, and scaling up. Sometimes the simplest ideas hit the hardest.

CoasterMania Adds Hand-Tracking for Mixed Reality CoasterMania, an MR rollercoaster game, just added hand-tracking support, letting you experience the thrills without a controller. The future of VR/MR gaming continues to get more immersive.

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Steam & PC

Valve May Be Adding Frame Rate Estimates to Steam Store Pages This could be Steam's most useful update ever — Valve is reportedly working on a feature that would show estimated frame rates for games based on how they've actually been running on users' PCs with similar hardware. If this ships, it's a game-changer for purchase decisions.

PS3 Emulator Gets a Gorgeous New UI for Steam Deck The PlayStation 3 emulator scene just leveled up with a slick new UI designed specifically for handheld PCs like the Steam Deck. The screenshot of Snake from Metal Gear Solid 4 using a controller to control himself on a Deck is peak gaming inception.

15 PC Games for $15 in New Humble Bundle Humble has dropped one of its best bang-for-buck bundles: the Humble 15 for $15 Bundle is live now with an excellent selection of PC games, with proceeds supporting charity. At a dollar a game, this is practically a steal.

Five New Steam Games You Probably Missed PC Gamer's weekly roundup is here with five fresh Steam releases that flew under the radar. If you're always hunting for the next hidden gem, this is your weekly required reading.

High-End Gaming PCs Are More Expensive Than Ever — But You Don't Need One With RAM prices barely inching down and GPU costs still sky-high, building a top-tier PC in 2026 is painfully expensive. But IGN makes a solid case that you really don't need flagship hardware to have an excellent gaming experience.

New Tool Adds Achievements to Non-Steam Games on Linux Someone built a tool to add achievement tracking to non-Steam games on Linux — a niche within a niche, but if you're in that Venn diagram, this is your moment. Achievement hunters on the Tux, rejoice.

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Gaming Roundup

Double Dragon Creator Yoshihisa Kishimoto Passes Away at 64 🕊️ The gaming world has lost a legend. Yoshihisa Kishimoto, the creator of Double Dragon, Renegade, and the Kunio-kun (River City) series, has passed away at 64, as confirmed by his son. Kishimoto's work essentially defined the beat 'em up genre, drawing from his own rebellious youth to create arcade experiences that shaped an entire generation of game design. Rest in peace to a true pioneer.

Star Wars: Zero Company Director on What the Industry Can Learn from XCOM 2 In a thoughtful interview, the director of Star Wars: Zero Company spoke about the importance of keeping development teams together — a lesson learned from XCOM 2 — amid an industry plagued by mass layoffs. With Epic, Eidos Montreal, and Ubisoft all cutting staff in March alone, the message couldn't be more timely.

Crimson Desert Patch Addresses Storage Frustrations Crimson Desert has received a new patch tackling the open-world RPG's biggest headache: limited storage space. Several other welcome quality-of-life changes are included, making Pearl Abyss's ambitious title a smoother experience.

One Piece: Elbaph Arc Premiere Delivers The premiere episode of One Piece's Elbaph Arc is now streaming on Crunchyroll, and early reviews call it a monumental achievement. From its opening minutes, this feels like a landmark moment for the long-running series.

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Stay gaming, friends. See you tomorrow. 🎮