Pokémon & Nintendo

• Nintendo's President, Shuntaro Furukawa, is officially cracking down on Pokémon card scalpers after billions of printed cards failed to satisfy market demand. During a recent shareholder meeting, Furukawa noted that the intense scalping is on Nintendo's radar and even mentioned that requiring government ID for purchases isn't off the table!
• In truly hilarious crime news, a pair of Pokémon card thieves have been jailed after making off with £71,000 (around $95,000) in stolen stock. Their brilliant heist was thwarted when their getaway van broke down, leaving them stranded with the massive haul of cards.
• To celebrate Pokémon's 30th anniversary, The Pokémon Company announced a fun collaboration with Japan’s top professional soccer association, the J League. Each of the J League’s 60 teams has been officially matched with their very own Pokémon!
• A wildly unique charity Pokémon Champions tournament is in the works, featuring bizarre competitions like whistling and pizza acrobatics. The ultimate winners of these unusual contests will walk away with a trip to the 2027 Pokémon World Championships.
• A dedicated fan has built an incredibly useful Pokémon Go 2026 + Road of Legends Raid Planner web app to help players tackle the overwhelming 7-day raid gauntlet of GO Fest. The tool helps you easily track raid boss priorities, counters, megas, and the exact number of raid passes you'll need on hand.
• WayForward has officially confirmed that Shantae's seventh game will be arriving in 2027, sharing a brand-new teaser image to hype up fans of the beloved half-genie.
• Nintendo has shared a gracious statement after being voted the number one game developer by Famitsu readers in Japan, beating out industry heavyweights like Square Enix.
• Persona fans, listen up: Aniplex USA has released the entirety of Persona 4: The Animation and Persona 4: The Golden Animation for free on YouTube, but only for a limited time!
• If you're looking for new games to play, Nintendo Life just dropped their eShop Selects for June 2026, highlighting the absolute best digital-only releases on both the Switch 1 and Switch 2 over the last month.

Fortnite

• Epic Games has officially settled its lawsuit against a former contractor accused of leaking massive Fortnite collaborations. Hayden Cohen, who previously worked as an associate producer on the game, was outed for sharing unauthorized details about upcoming crossovers featuring South Park, Minecraft, and Overwatch.

Indie Games

• In a stunning victory for solo developers, Destructoid reports that a single-dev indie game currently stands as 2026’s best-selling title so far! It's an incredibly exciting reminder that you don't need an AAA budget backed by billions to dominate the current gaming landscape.
• Pocketpair’s mega-hit Palworld is gearing up for its hotly anticipated 1.0 update, which officially launches this week on July 10. The developer has narrowed down the release timing and issued an official recommendation that while existing players don't need to wipe their data, they really should start fresh to fully experience the massive update.

Steam & PC

• PlayStation and Arc System Works' upcoming tag-team fighter, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, is suffering from massive PSN region-locking woes similar to the Helldivers 2 debacle. The upcoming PC release has been blocked in 132 countries on Steam due to Sony's controversial mandatory PSN linking requirement.
• Valve just rolled out a handy SteamOS update to version 3.8.14, bringing notable improvements to WiFi download speeds for devices utilizing an antenna. The patch is available now on the Steam Deck, though it comes with a couple of minor caveats.
• An indie developer is imploring Steam to revisit its robust refund policy, noting that the two-hour playtime window is being heavily abused. Players are apparently beating their short indie game in under two hours and continuously returning it for a full refund!
• PC Gamer recently highlighted a hilarious new "dopamine site" for Steam that lets you build up a massive, fake backlog of games without spending a single cent. It's the perfect way to simulate the thrill of a massive Steam Summer Sale haul!

Gaming Roundup

• Legendary game director Hideo Kojima is lamenting the current state of the video game industry, stating he finds it "really sad" that companies are increasingly turning away from physical discs. It's a stark reminder of the shifting landscape of game preservation and media consumption.
• Bandai Namco's Katsuhiro Harada had high praise for Masahiro Sakurai, famously describing the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Kirby creator as "A Saiyan." Harada noted that the legendary developer will sometimes say something that "sounds exactly like Goku," highlighting his legendary work ethic and passion!