Pokémon & Nintendo

The Pokémon Pokopia hype train rolls on this weekend with Bulbasaur's Jump Rope Contest, a limited-time event giving off serious Mario Odyssey vibes that'll demand precision timing and rhythm-game reflexes. Meanwhile, in possibly the most unexpected crossover of the year, Pokémon Pop-Tarts are returning to Target shelves for the first time in a quarter-century — yes, 25 years — alongside a fresh wave of collab merch.

The Pokémon TCG community is officially in chaos, with a Costco restock of Prismatic Evolution ending in a literal car ramming into shopping carts. On the data-mining side, Pokémon Go fans believe they've cracked one of Niantic's longest-kept secrets, using Silicobra's spawn patterns alongside USGS desert biome maps to reverse-engineer hidden biome data. And for retro fans, Nintendo pushed GameCube App Version 1.6.1 with tweaks aimed squarely at Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness players.

Nintendo's big release of the week is here: Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream lands on Switch today (April 16th), and Nintendo Life's review calls it "bizarre, hilarious, and a bit samey" — the round-up of broader reviews mirrors that vibe. Nintendo Music is celebrating with a special Tomodachi-themed update too. Elsewhere on Switch and Switch 2: Layers of Fear: The Final Masterpiece Edition gets a physical release on September 18th with a lenticular postcard and art book, Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Switch 2 Edition received another small post-Bellabel-Park-Meetup patch, and a Switch 2 rating for Bethesda's newest IP has appeared online — fueling Starfield port speculation.

In sadder news, veteran voice actor Jock Blaney, the voice of Wolf O'Donnell and Bill Grey in Star Fox 64, passed away last month at age 76. On the lighter side, Playtonic (Yooka-Replaylee) is teasing something on Bluesky, gorgeous custom Game Boy-tribute Joy-Con are turning heads, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds added Angry Birds' Red as free DLC, Hytale dev Hypixel Studios is pursuing legal action against a knock-off Switch eShop game, and Star Trek: Resurgence is about to be delisted due to expiring licenses.

Arc Raiders

Embark Studios revealed that roughly 30% of Arc Raiders players focus on PvE, and the team is genuinely thrilled — audio director Bence Pajor's framing of "we want to instil hope in the player" suggests Embark is leaning into the game's cooperative, hopeful identity rather than forcing extraction-shooter conventions. It's a refreshing stance in a genre that often glorifies griefing.

In a great behind-the-scenes story, Pajor also appeared on the Game Makers Notebook podcast and revealed he literally punched himself to record realistic gunshot scream audio during his earlier days at DICE on Battlefield. "I wanted you to feel bad," he said — and now you know why those Arc Raiders sound effects hit so hard.

Indie Games

The Subnautica 2 saga keeps getting messier: Krafton's name has been quietly removed from the Steam page, fueling speculation that Unknown Worlds may self-publish following its long legal battle and the reinstatement of studio leadership. Krafton tells Eurogamer it's still "supporting the early access launch," but the writing may be on the wall.

In a wonderful break from the trend of killing struggling online games, Might & Delight's beautiful "tiny MMO" Book of Travels has been reborn as a $5 singleplayer RPG — a genuinely classy way to preserve a flawed-but-magical world. Meanwhile, piratical survival game Windrose (formerly Crosswind) is sailing into Early Access with positive Steam reviews and strong player numbers, and Labyrinth.os is dropping on itch.io as a delightfully unsettling 3D dungeon crawler dripping with late-'90s/early-2000s uncanny CGI energy.

Drama corner: Ashes of Creation director Steven Sharif is firing back at "coordinated attacks" against Intrepid Studios, calling recent claims about the company's finances "completely" unfounded.

Steam & PC

Dragon's Dogma 2 received a mysterious, sizable patch on SteamDB to mark its second anniversary — and the Capcom faithful are convinced this is finally the prelude to that long-rumored DLC announcement. Fingers crossed.

Big quality-of-life win: Gloomwood just added full controller support, making it a Steam Deck and couch-friendly stealth-immersive-sim contender. Valve also appears to be prepping 30-day Steam price tracking in the US, which would make it considerably harder for publishers to game the discount system. PC Gamer is also spotlighting four indie Armored Core-likes to scratch the mecha itch while we all wait for FromSoft's next move, including the evocatively-named Omega Phenex Commenced Project Six.

On the hardware front, the new Alienware AW2726DM — a 27" QHD 240Hz QD-OLED — has launched at what's reportedly the lowest price ever for that spec sheet, a genuine landmark for accessible high-end OLED gaming displays.

Gaming Roundup

The leaked GTA Online revenue data from hacker group ShinyHunters has had an unexpected effect: rather than tanking, Take-Two's stock actually got a boost as investors digested just how much money Rockstar is still printing — and Rock Paper Shotgun argues the figures explain exactly why Rockstar is in no rush to release GTA 6 on PC.

Hades 2 has launched on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S with a major post-launch patch, and Supergiant has quietly introduced a brand-new way to play that came out of nowhere — well worth checking out if you've been waiting on console. Crimson Desert has crossed 5 million copies sold in under a month, with Pearl Abyss insisting they're just getting started — though fans are openly debating whether the game's 70+ bosses are actually any good, with one in particular drawing community ire.

Former Epic employees claim players grab the Epic Games Store's freebies and immediately bounce back to Steam, painting a picture of a profitable-but-fundamentally-stalled storefront. Amazon broke its silence on the James Bond casting, insisting the wait is about getting it right. The week's PS5/Xbox/Steam top 10 dropped courtesy of Circana's Mat Piscatella, GameFly's Pre-Played Sale is offering big discounts on current-gen physical games, and IGN's Replaced review is live — a moody, hand-crafted standout in an era of algorithmic slop.