Pokémon & Nintendo

• It’s time to feel old: we’re officially celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the Pokémon GO global rollout! To mark the occasion and a recent $3.5 billion acquisition, developer Niantic has officially changed its name and logo to "Scopely Explore."
• In impressive mobile milestones, the free-to-download battle game Pokémon Champions has officially surpassed 10 million downloads worldwide following its Switch launch in April and smartphone release in June.
• To celebrate the franchise's 30th anniversary, LEGO is releasing a massive wave of Pokémon sets, including an incredible Venusaur and Professor Oak's lab. However, you might want to brace your wallets, as some of these sets are currently priced as high as a Nintendo Switch console!
• Speaking of Nintendo hardware, Owlcat Games has issued a massive update for Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader on the Switch 2 to fix its disastrous 4/10 launch. To make amends to fans, the studio has also made all of the game's DLC completely free!
• Pearl Abyss confirmed they are hard at work on a Switch 2 version of their upcoming open-world action game Crimson Desert, currently getting the basic gameplay running on the handheld.
• Get ready for a sci-fi co-op adventure, as Shapefarm's Orbitals is locking in a September 3rd release date exclusively for Switch 2, featuring a stellar English voice cast from Street Fighter and Fire Emblem.
• Finally, in a bit of a bummer for mobile racing fans, Nintendo has confirmed that Mario Kart Tour is shutting down for good this September after seven years of service, with absolutely no offline version being offered.

Call of Duty

• Trophy lists for the upcoming PlayStation re-releases of Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2 have leaked online, suggesting a launch is imminent. Unfortunately, the lists also indicate that several fondly-remembered modes and pieces of content might be missing when the games arrive on PS4 and PS5 later this month.

Arc Raiders

• Embark Studios is on a roll, pushing out the highly anticipated 1.3.6 update for Arc Raiders that finally adds a heavily requested matchmaking feature! This allows players to have much more control over their lobbies, letting you Jekyll and Hyde your way through the deadly surface.
• This same update officially kicks off Expedition 4 and sets the stage for an upcoming crossover event with Embark’s other massive shooter, The Finals.
• On the security front, the development team has successfully cracked down on item duplication exploits. For the first time in months, the percentage of players with "unusually high profit per minute" has officially dropped below 1%, making the extraction loop much fairer for everyone.

Indie Games

• In what might be the most wonderfully bizarre gaming news of the week, controversial director Uwe Boll's revenge movie Citizen Vigilante is getting an official PS5 tie-in game next week. Built by a solo developer, the game looks exactly as incredibly rough as you would expect from a Uwe Boll film adaptation.

Steam & PC

• Proving that fantastic gameplay never dies, 2014’s The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is currently more popular than ever and setting brand-new player records on Steam with over 150,000 active players!
• In a hilarious twist that no one saw coming, Valve has officially released Windows drivers for the long-dead Steam Machine. This is a wild surprise for the three people who actually managed to buy one and inexplicably want to swap off the original SteamOS today.
• Fans of deep dungeon dives should keep an eye out, as Echoes of Aincrad is officially launching on PC and consoles very soon following a massively successful Steam Next Fest showing.
• Finally, id Software just dropped the highly anticipated Revelations DLC for Doom: The Dark Ages. Just a quick heads-up for Premium Edition owners: you might need to check community guides if Steam isn't automatically loading your new DLC!

Gaming Roundup

• The industry was rocked today as new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma confirmed a massive wave of 1,600 layoffs, with another 1,600 cuts expected soon as part of a massive "reset" of the company. This devastating news arrives alongside a new report revealing Microsoft spent a staggering $80 billion on its bet for Xbox Game Pass—a bet that ultimately did not work out as planned.
• Summer is heating up in Marvel Rivals, as Season 9 is officially live and brings X-Men fan-favorite Jubilee into the hero shooter lineup!
• The cybernetic crossover magic continues as Cyberpunk: Edgerunners' Lucy finds herself hopping into yet another game, this time for an upcoming event in Apex Legends.
• If you're looking for pirate adventures, you might want to hold off on Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced. Early reviews indicate the remake fails to capture the magic of the peak 2013 original.
• Surprisingly, Vin Diesel's recent costume tease was a bit premature, as reports confirm Fast & Furious 11 is reportedly not actually in production yet.