🎮 Daily Gaming Digest — April 29, 2026

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Pokémon & Nintendo

Mega Mewtwo X and Y are finally coming to Pokémon Go during Go Fest 2026! Developer Scopely confirmed the long-awaited debut, and in a massive win for the community, Go Fest 2026: Global will be completely free for all players this year. This is huge — Mega Mewtwo has been one of the most requested additions for years, and removing the paywall is a bold move.

A Japanese Bic Camera store is fighting Pokémon card scalpers with... a quiz. Customers at a Tokyo branch now have to pass a written Pokémon knowledge test before they can purchase cards. It's a hilariously creative anti-scalper measure, and honestly, if you can't name a few Pokémon, you probably shouldn't be buying the cards anyway.

The creator of the beloved PokéNational Geographic fan series says his channel is shutting down due to Nintendo copyright strikes. The popular Pokémon nature documentary series is officially dead, with the creator stating plainly: "PokéNational is dead. I'm not going to be able to make PokéNational again." Another painful reminder of Nintendo's aggressive stance on fan content.

Pokémon Go's Steeled Resolve event is live, spotlighting Steel-types including the debuting Orthworm, plus a limited-time window to snag Shiny Meltan. If you've been chasing that golden hex nut boy, now's your chance.

Monster Crown: Sin Eater landed on Switch and it's getting solid marks as a satisfyingly deep, open-ended monster-catching RPG. Nintendo Life calls it a worthy follow-up to the 2021 original, offering the kind of old-school Pokémon vibes that fans of the Game Boy era will eat up.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth on Switch 2 is looking impressive. Previews are rolling in based on the free demo (limited to handheld mode), and early impressions suggest Square Enix has done strong work with the port ahead of its June launch. Meanwhile, FF7 trilogy director Naoki Hamaguchi confirmed that Part 3's development is "on time and on schedule" — music to the ears of anyone who's been anxiously waiting.

Nintendo and Illumination have locked in an untitled animated "event film" for April 2028, riding the massive box office success of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Rumors are also swirling about a possible live-action Metroid movie, though nothing official has been confirmed on that front yet.

Resident Evil Requiem's minigame DLC update appears imminent, with director Koshi Nakanishi teasing that both minigame content and a story expansion are on the way. Capcom clearly isn't done with this one yet.

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection just dropped a major update adding cross-platform online play. Krossplay is finally here, filling a notable gap since the collection launched last October. Digital Eclipse continues to do right by the klassics.

Bethesda wants to remind you that "physical" (read: code-in-box) editions of Fallout 4: Anniversary Edition and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition are now available for Switch 2. The air quotes around "physical" are doing a lot of heavy lifting here.

In lighter news: You can now be laid to rest in an unofficial Super Mario coffin, courtesy of a Brazilian manufacturer that went viral with promo videos. Game over, indeed. And Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream on Switch is making headlines for its surprisingly open-minded approach to player expression — Nintendo letting loose in unexpected ways.

Elementallis is bringing GBA-era Zelda-style adventuring to Switch with gorgeous pixel art and elemental magic mechanics. One to watch for fans of top-down action-adventures. Speaking of Zelda — Nintendo Life is diving deep into the eternal debate: is Link left-handed or right-handed? The evidence may surprise you.

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Fortnite

Epic Games is honoring refunds for all D4vd cosmetics in Fortnite following the American singer being charged with murdering a 14-year-old girl. Players will need to request the refund manually, but Epic is making the process available to everyone who purchased the items. A swift and appropriate response to a deeply disturbing situation.

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Call of Duty

The upcoming Call of Duty movie already has its first controversy. A 2013 interview with director Peter Berg has resurfaced in which he called people who play war games like Call of Duty "weak" and "pathetic." The gaming community is, predictably, not thrilled about this — and the debate is raging across multiple outlets. It's certainly an awkward look for someone now helming a film based on one of the biggest gaming franchises in history.

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Arc Raiders

Arc Raiders just dropped its Riven Tides update and it's a big one! The extraction shooter from Embark Studios is adding a gorgeous new coastal map featuring a collapsing hotel, along with significant weapon balance changes aimed at ensuring "all players are challenged by weapon attrition." The devs acknowledged community frustrations directly, stating "we've heard a clear frustration" — always good to see a team listening.

On the guide front, there's a wave of new content to dig into: the Collision Course mission, beachcombing with the Dockmaster's Detector, the Last Resort limited-time event tied to Miniature Voyages, and the Avian Alarm project. If you're jumping into the new update, PC Gamer has you covered with walkthroughs for all of it.

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Indie Games

Tides of Tethys is giving major BioShock-meets-Subnautica vibes and it just hit our radar as a moody deep-sea strategy game where — and I cannot stress this enough — you can strap Big Daddy-style diving suits onto crabs. If you're a Jules Verne fan counting down to Subnautica 2's early access launch, this one should absolutely be on your wishlist.

Crimson Desert's feel-good saga continues: Pearl Abyss CEO Heo Jin-young announced that every single employee at the studio received a bonus of five million won following the game's smashing success. Devs getting paid what they deserve? We love to see it.

Above Land: Rhapsody was announced for PC, and it's an absolute fever dream of a game — a sci-fi fantasy action-RPG roguelite with tower defense elements, three-player co-op, and weapons that include basketball slam dunks alongside swordplay. Think Elden Ring Nightreign energy but cranked to eleven.

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Steam & PC

The new Steam Controller reviews are in and the verdict is positive! Rock Paper Shotgun's deep-dive second opinion praises what works while noting areas Valve should improve for the next iteration. The Steam Deck's DNA is all over this thing — and Valve is already hinting that hardware upgrades developed for the controller could be reused in a next-gen Steam Deck. The future of Valve hardware is looking very interconnected.

Dbrand is already selling skins for the new Steam Controller, because of course they are. Their announcement leaned hard into their signature irreverent branding: "We've never met a cult we didn't want to be a part of."

Xbox boss Asha Sharma hinted that memory costs "will impact" the pricing and availability of the next-gen Project Helix console. The ongoing RAM crisis continues to cast a shadow over next-gen plans, and it sounds like Microsoft is bracing fans for a potentially premium price point.

Vanquish is seeing a massive player spike on Steam following Capcom's Pragmata release, with PC gamers rediscovering what many consider the best third-person shooter ever made. If you've never experienced PlatinumGames' rocket-sliding masterpiece, there's never been a better time.

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Gaming Roundup

A live-action Zelda movie is reportedly making good progress, though details remain scarce. Combined with the new Illumination film announcement and Metroid movie rumors, Nintendo's entertainment empire is expanding at a staggering pace.

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That's your wrap for April 29, 2026! Mega Mewtwo in Pokémon Go, a beach day in Arc Raiders, and Steam Controller hype — not a bad Wednesday at all. Game on! 🎮