Pokémon & Nintendo — new reveals, game updates, Nintendo Direct news, Switch content, Pokémon announcements

• Pokémon Winds & Waves just got a lot more expensive. An Amazon Germany pre-order listing has gone live for the upcoming Pokémon generation, slapping a €79.99 price tag on it — a €10 bump over Pokémon Legends: Z-A. The pair is currently scheduled for a 2027 release window.

• Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is dominating US sales. Circana data projects the delightfully bizarre life sim as the best-selling game of April in the US, with the Switch 2 taking the best-selling console crown for the same period. Not bad for a game about weird little Mii people living their best lives.

• The gorgeous Pokémon: Dragonite and the Special Delivery anime short finally has an English dub. CoMix Wave Films (yes, the Makoto Shinkai studio) produced this heartwarming love letter to everyone's favorite dopey Dragon-type, and it's absolutely worth your time today.

• Don't hold your breath for Pokémon GO 2. Niantic says a sequel "wouldn't make much sense" as the original nears its 10th anniversary. Scopely's recent acquisition of the title seems to reinforce a "keep building on what works" strategy.

• A 34-year-old Iowa man is suing Nintendo and The Pokémon Company for $341,000 because they refuse to grant him the official "Pokémon Professor" title. It sounds like a joke, but the actual reasoning is more nuanced than you'd expect.

• Warhorse Studios (Kingdom Come: Deliverance) is officially making an open-world Middle-earth RPG. This is not a drill — one of the best RPG studios working today is heading to Tolkien's world. This is potentially the dream project for fantasy RPG fans.

• LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight reviews are in and they're looking strong across platforms. A Switch 2 version is confirmed but doesn't have a date yet.

• Tales of Arise - Beyond The Dawn Edition lands on Switch 2 as a solid port of a solid RPG, though reviewers note it drags in the back half. If you missed it the first time around, this is the definitive way to play it portable.

• Genshin Impact's HoYoverse account system appears to have quietly added Switch support, reigniting hopes that the massive open-world RPG might finally be coming to Nintendo's platform after years of waiting.

• Hotel Barcelona, the collaboration between SWERY and SUDA51, is heading to both Switch 1 and Switch 2 "soon." The Late Check-Out DLC just dropped for existing platforms.

• 007 First Light launches May 27th, and IO Interactive has confirmed exact unlock times — pre-orders get early access. Get your tuxedos pressed.

• Keegan-Michael Key, fresh off voicing Toad in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (now over $940M at the box office), says he's ready to take on something rated Mature. Give this man a horror game immediately.

Fortnite — season updates, collabs, new skins, map changes, competitive scene

• Fortnite has returned to Apple's App Store worldwide (excluding Australia) as Epic Games declares "the beginning of the end of the Apple Tax worldwide." After years of legal battles, this marks a seismic shift in mobile gaming distribution and Epic is framing it as the opening salvo in "the final battle" against platform gatekeeping.

• Lords of the Fallen 2 is no longer Epic Games Store exclusive on PC. Developer CI Games and Epic have terminated their exclusivity deal, meaning the dark fantasy action-RPG will potentially launch on Steam as well when it arrives.

Call of Duty — Warzone/Black Ops updates, new seasons, weapons, competitive

• 1047 Games, the Splitgate developers, have announced Empulse, a "Titanfall-inspired movement shooter" heading to early access later this year. After two attempts to "make shooters great again" with portal mechanics, the studio is pivoting toward fast-paced mech-adjacent FPS gameplay. The Steam page went live before the game was even formally announced. Call of Duty fans hungry for fluid movement systems should definitely keep this one on their radar.

Arc Raiders — beta news, updates, community highlights, Embark Studios announcements

• Arc Raiders has implemented Denuvo anti-cheat, initially rolling it out to a limited player pool following a successful deployment in The Finals. Embark says they're "working to ensure minimal impact on performance," though players are understandably wary.

• Self-defense is no longer flagged as a hostile action in Arc Raiders' aggression-based matchmaking. Embark busted nine myths about their controversial matchmaking system in a detailed community post, and the right to fight back without penalty is the headline change. This is a huge quality-of-life shift for solo players who just want to extract in peace.

Indie Games — notable releases, hidden gems, devlogs, Steam Next Fest picks

• Titanium Court, the surreal narrative match-3 game, has sold over 25,000 copies — enough that designer AP Thomson can peacefully develop his next project. In a brutal market for indie studios, this is a genuinely heartwarming success story for a genuinely strange and wonderful game.

• Paralives is finally launching into early access on May 25th, and new gameplay footage shows a life sim with the kind of building freedom that The Sims fans have been dreaming about for years. This could be the indie breakout of the summer.

• Heathen is a dungeon-crawling "descent into madness" inspired by the developer's motherly love — a surprisingly emotional origin story for what looks like a deeply atmospheric RPG.

• A family-friendly Steam game called Rodent Race was quietly hijacked by crypto-stealing malware disguised as an indie game called Beyond The Dark before being delisted. Another reminder to check what you're downloading, even from seemingly legitimate storefronts.

Steam & PC — top charts, big sales, Steam Deck compatibility, major PC releases

• Valve is aggressively fighting back against the New York lawsuit targeting Steam lootboxes, filing a motion to dismiss and arguing that equating loot boxes to gambling is "nonsensical" and that "people enjoy surprises." The company claims the case is a free speech violation that would have "an impermissible chilling effect on protected videogame design." This is going to be a landmark case regardless of outcome.

• Civilization 7's massive overhaul update has pushed the game to its highest Steam player count in over a year. Whatever Firaxis changed, it's clearly working — players are flooding back in.

• World of Tanks: Heat, the free-to-play arcade spin-off from Wargaming, launches May 26th on PC and PS5. A more accessible, tactical vehicle-shooter variant of the long-running MMO.

• The Gamesir G7 Pro wireless controller, a PC gaming favorite, is on sale for Memorial Day via AliExpress in Mech White or Shadow Ember colorways. Excellent pad, great price if you're in the market.

Gaming Roundup — other notable news, trailers, industry moves

• Sony's summer 2026 State of Play is confirmed for over 60 minutes, and Marvel's Wolverine is reportedly taking center stage. A full hour of PlayStation reveals with Insomniac's mutant brawler as the headliner — clear your schedule.

• Warhammer Skulls 2026 is coming, and the promotional imagery shows multiple Space Marine chapters fighting together. Expect reveals, trailers, and the usual delicious grimdark hype.

• Forza Horizon 6 players are already exploiting the game to farm credits and unlock every car. YouTuber XMBWesley posted a guide on how to bend the economy to your will. Playground Games will likely patch this quickly, so enjoy it while it lasts.

• Raiden Fighters Remix Collection just added a delightfully weird "54 FPS setting" to enhance the "authentic arcade feel" on Switch. It's a fascinating choice that die-hard shmup preservationists will appreciate.