🎮 Daily Gaming Digest — April 22, 2026

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Pokémon & Nintendo

🦑 Splatoon Raiders Is Alive and Launching This Summer on Switch 2! After months of radio silence, Nintendo finally pulled back the curtain on Splatoon Raiders during Nintendo Today!, revealing a brand-new trailer and a July 23rd release date. This one's a single-player-focused Splatoon experience — a bold new direction for the franchise — and it's already generating serious buzz. Three new Splatoon amiibo are also on the way to coincide with the launch, so collectors, get your wallets ready.

🎬 Super Mario Galaxy Movie Pushes Franchise Past $2 Billion at the Box Office. Already 2026's biggest box office hit, the Super Mario Galaxy Movie has helped the overall Mario film franchise cross the $2 billion global milestone. Nintendo and Illumination continue to prove that gaming IP on the big screen is an absolute juggernaut.

👽 Alien: Rogue Incursion Shadow-Drops on Switch 2! In a surprise move ahead of Alien Day (April 26th), developer Survios dropped Alien: Rogue Incursion - Part I: Evolved Edition on Switch 2 with zero warning. If you've been craving some xenomorph horror on the go, your prayers have been answered.

🐉 Dragon Ball FighterZ Update 1.50 Launches Today. Bandai Namco has released a major update for Dragon Ball FighterZ on Switch, adding Goku (SS4, Daima) as a paid DLC character alongside a hefty set of patch notes and balance changes. The legendary fighter keeps getting fresher.

🎵 Ratatan Secures a Physical Release on Switch 2. Though the rhythm roguelike Ratatan had its original Switch version cancelled, it's confirmed for a Switch 2 physical release this July with pre-orders live now. Fans of the spiritual successor to Patapon won't want to miss this one.

🧛 Vampire Crawlers Out Now on Switch 1 & 2. Poncle's latest, Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard, transforms the Vampire Survivors universe into a tactical deckbuilder and is available right now on both Switch generations. If you loved the original, this clever genre mashup is calling your name.

⭐ Star Fox Zero Turns 10 Today. A decade ago, Star Fox Zero launched on Wii U — love it or hate it, it remains the last mainline Star Fox release. Nintendo Life is asking the big question: have you actually played it, and would you want a Switch port?

🗡️ Ys Memoire: Revelations in Celceta Reviewed on Switch. The latest Ys Memoire port brings Ys: Memories of Celceta to Switch, earning praise as a simple yet fun adventure. If you've been following this series' slow migration to Nintendo hardware, this one's worth your time.

🏝️ Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream — Rate It! The sequel that was reportedly feature-complete a full year ago is finally in players' hands, and Nintendo Life wants to know what score you'd give it. Meanwhile, Kotaku is celebrating the game's gloriously low-effort custom creations — including a single pea on a plate.

🃏 Pokémon TCG First Partner Illustration Collection - Series 2 Pre-Orders Open. With Pokémon's 30th anniversary celebrations in full swing, the First Partner Illustration Collection - Series 2 is now available for pre-order. The TCG scene has been absolutely buzzing lately, so grab yours before scalpers do.

⚖️ Pokémon Doubles Down on Controversial Pro Player Penalty. Play! Pokémon has issued a new official ruling upholding its decision to strip a pro player's tournament win in what remains a deeply controversial situation. The competitive community is not going to let this one go quietly.

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Fortnite

🔮 Chaos Cubes Expand in Chapter 7, Season 2. Fortnite Chapter 7, Season 2 continues to scatter Chaos Cubes across the island, with new ones appearing in and around Ripped Tides. You'll need to track down quite a few to complete this sprawling quest chain, so keep your eyes peeled while dropping in.

🇦🇺 Australian Government Issues Transparency Notices to Major Platforms. Australia's eSafety commissioner has issued transparency notices to Epic Games (Fortnite), Valve (Steam), Microsoft (Minecraft), and the Roblox Corporation, citing concerns about platforms "becoming onramps to abuse and radicalisation." This could have significant implications for how these platforms moderate content going forward.

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Call of Duty

💰 Xbox Game Pass Prices Drop — But CoD Exits Day-One Lineup. In a massive shakeup, Microsoft has slashed Xbox Game Pass Ultimate from $29.99/month to $22.99/month and PC Game Pass from $16.49/month to $13.99/month. The catch? Future Call of Duty titles will no longer launch day-one on the service, instead arriving roughly a year after release. This is a seismic shift in Microsoft's Game Pass strategy.

🧟 Black Ops 7 Zombies Gets "Totenreich" Map Trailer. Treyarch has dropped the cinematic trailer for Totenreich, a brand-new round-based Zombies map coming to Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 in Season 3 Reloaded. The trailer teases a gigantic boss and serious old-school vibes that should have OG Zombies fans hyped.

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Arc Raiders

🌳 Arc Raiders Skill Trees Getting "Significant Changes." Embark Studios design director Virgil Watkins has acknowledged that Arc Raiders' current skill trees aren't quite where they need to be, with the balancing act between PvP and PvE leaving some skills "underserving their purpose." Significant reworks are in the pipeline. The next Expedition drops April 28th with an improved progression reset system, so there's plenty to look forward to in the near term.

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Indie Games

🗣️ Hades 2 Dev Talks Changing That Controversial Ending. Supergiant Games has opened up about revising Hades 2's polarizing ending, with the team leaning into the idea that "mythology, by its nature, is told and retold." If the original conclusion didn't land for you, it sounds like the team heard the feedback loud and clear.

🎮 Devolver Digital on the State of Indie Games. In a candid interview, the publisher behind Hotline Miami and Enter the Gungeon reflected on the unpredictability of the indie market, noting "you need a crystal ball really to predict any of this stuff." It's a fascinating health check on the indie scene from one of its most iconic champions.

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Steam & PC

🏴‍☠️ Windrose Takes Steam by Storm. The pirate-themed survival game Windrose has sailed past one million players since launch, and in a wholesome twist, players keep accidentally stumbling onto a metal band's hangout page that shares the same name. The community crossover nobody expected, but everyone needed.

🤖 Helldivers 2 Brings Back Classic Mech Suits. The latest warbond for Helldivers 2 introduces two new exosuit stratagems, including a beloved mech from the original game. "Not all machines are twisted mechano-socialists," apparently — democracy has never looked so heavily armed.

🏰 Endless Legend 2 Tackles the 4X Diplomacy Problem. Endless Legend 2 is introducing a clever badge system for AI civilizations — ranging from "Pleasant" to "Bully" — to solve the age-old issue of "goldfish" AI that forgets everything between turns. This could be a genuine game-changer for the 4X genre.

🌍 Aion 2 Confirmed for Global PC Release in 2026. NCSoft's Aion 2, the sequel to the beloved Korean MMO that's been live in South Korea and Taiwan since late last year, is officially heading to a global PC release on Steam this year. MMO fans, put this one on your radar.

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Gaming Roundup

😈 Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred Expansion Impresses. The latest expansion for Diablo 4 puts the spotlight squarely on Mephisto and is being praised as potentially the game's best expansion yet. If you've been waiting for the right time to return to Sanctuary, this might be it.

🔫 Marathon Doubles Consumable Carry Limits. Bungie is making aggressive changes to Marathon, doubling the amount of meds and armor consumables players can carry per inventory slot as the studio fights to improve its extraction shooter's moment-to-moment gameplay. The battle for Marathon's identity continues.

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That's your wrap for April 22nd, 2026! Between Splatoon Raiders finally resurfacing, the Game Pass shakeup, and Black Ops 7 Zombies going full nostalgia mode, today was absolutely stacked. Game on! 🎮