Quick Hits

• Indie Smash Hit: House House and Panic's co-op puzzle-exploration game Big Walk has officially sold over 1 million copies in less than a week. Kotaku reports the breakout hit is currently the best-reviewed game of 2026.
• Steam Security Warning: A cyberattack on one of Valve's shipping partners has potentially compromised the personal information of European customers who purchased Steam hardware within the last three months. Rock Paper Shotgun advises the community to be on high alert for fake messages.
• Todd Howard's Clarification: Bethesda wants to set the record straight on the upcoming Switch 2 port of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. In a feature with Nintendo Life, the studio emphasized that "the core bones are still the original game," calling it a remaster rather than a full remake.
• Assassin's Creed Creator's New Game: 1666: Amsterdam, the dark and witchy action game from AC creator Patrice Désilets, is hitting early access on August 25th. However, PC Gamer notes that a recent preview left them with a "bad feeling" that the game might be creeping too close to release for comfort.

Pokémon & Nintendo

It’s a massive week for trainers, as the first part of the Pokémon Pokopia Expansion Pass has officially launched with the Bubbly Basin DLC. Nintendo Life has rounded up the reviews and first impressions, highlighting a strong start for the expansion. To help players navigate the only underwater area in all of Pokopia, Destructoid has published essential guides, including a complete Bubbly Basin Pokédex detailing all the unique Pokémon habitats and specialities. They're also helping players rebuild the ruined region with tips on finding Ocean Doors and utilizing Dolls and Dream Islands to stock up on valuable resources.

On the Nintendo hardware front, Uniqlo has surprise-dropped its sweet Mario Kart World t-shirt collection globally. This lineup marks Uniqlo's very first clothing range designed specifically for the Nintendo Switch 2 era. In other Switch 2 news, Nintendo Life has reviewed LEGO Party! Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, noting that the brick-based party game steps up as a new Party King and doesn't miss.

Finally, Square Enix's financial year is off to a roaring start with substantially upturned profits. Hello Games is also celebrating the 10th anniversary of No Man's Sky, revealing the staggering statistic that players have explored less than 1% of its generated planets over the last decade. And for Metroid fans, a brilliant new fan project has successfully transformed Metroid Prime into a fully playable 2D experience.

Fortnite

Fortnite Chapter 7, Season 3 continues its relentless push to become the ultimate gaming metaverse. Following the recent arrival of Payday collaborations—which PC Gamer cheekily notes is helping today's cool gamers "discover legendary IPs in entirely new ways"—the battle royale is already gearing up for an epic next season. Destructoid reports that Sonic the Hedgehog will finally be zooming into the item shop, joined by other iconic gaming legends.

For players grinding through the current battle pass, Destructoid also put out a handy guide on how to track down the elusive NPC known as The Order to review audio logs, a key questline needed to progress through the island's main storyline.

Indie Games & PC

The Steam ecosystem is buzzing today, not just because of the aforementioned data breach. Ubisoft quietly dropped the free-to-play mobile off-shoot The Division Resurgence onto Steam, a move that Eurogamer reports has left players confused and a little miffed by the port's quality and sudden arrival.

Meanwhile, Embark Studios' extraction shooter Arc Raiders continues to challenge players, with PC Gamer stepping in to help survivalists figure out how to properly upgrade the all-important Cargo Elevator antennas. For those looking to diversify their PC libraries, the indie scene is delivering major bangers:

• After immense buzz, the co-op multiplayer game Big Walk has cemented itself as a massive commercial and critical success, clearing a million copies in a week according to Kotaku.
• Fans of chill driving should keep an eye on Over the Hill. Rock Paper Shotgun highlights it as the "hippie off-roading cousin" to SnowRunner from the devs behind Art of Rally, and it's hitting a release window this October.
• In a generous move for retro fans, the classic indie atmospheric explorer Knytt has received a 20th-anniversary update for modern PCs via Knytt Classic, and it’s entirely free on Steam right now.
• If you're looking for your next weird Steam Next Fest demo, Rock Paper Shotgun is spotlighting Memoirium, a PSX-styled soulslike about battling through bizarre dreamscapes; The Carcass, a cosmic roguelike where you build a colony inside the corpse of a slowly awakening god; and PROFITS 2167, a wild interplanetary train-shipping simulator infested with space bugs.

Gaming Roundup

In a major industry shift following Xbox's mass layoffs and studio divestitures, a new report shared by GameSpot claims that Blizzard is now Xbox's "top performing" studio. Blizzard is making waves with its own titles, too, revealing a massive Overwatch battle pass overhaul for Season 4. The new multi-track system is introducing a highly requested feature: the ability to swap out skins you don't want. Finally, fighting game fans can start planning their grind, as GameSpot has broken down exactly how long it takes to beat the arcade and story modes of the newly released Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls.