Quick Hits

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4's closed beta peaked at over 115,000 concurrent players on Steam — then shed roughly half of them just a day after going live, per Destructoid. Meanwhile, GameSpot's hands-on finds the beta mostly business as usual, with one standout: genuinely impressive new smoke effects.
• The Duskbloods is finally in players' hands (sort of), and Nintendo Life's first impressions say that network issues aside, FromSoftware's Switch 2 exclusive "could wind up being really special."
• James Turner, the first Westerner to officially design a Pokémon, has rejoined the franchise in a new role at The Pokémon Company International after leaving Game Freak in 2022 to make The Plucky Squire (IGN, VGC).
• Start saving your September: GameSpot lays out why a Nintendo Direct is likely next month, noting the company has held September Directs in nine of the past 10 years.
• Mortal Shell 2's devs say they "ended up kind of cornered there" after disabling Steam achievements for players using the Slayer Seal easy mode — insisting they never meant to "lock everybody out" (Rock Paper Shotgun).

Pokémon & Nintendo

• The James Turner homecoming is the feel-good story of the day: IGN and VGC both report the designer — who departed Game Freak in 2022 after The Plucky Squire — has started a new role at The Pokémon Company International, and r/Nintendo is celebrating accordingly.
• In an intriguing VGC interview, Game Freak suggests Pokémon Champions was built partly so it could change battles in future games, with the developer framing the standalone battler as a way to preserve the classic rules.
• More on The Duskbloods: first revealed all the way back in the April 2025 Switch 2 Direct, the game has reached early hands-on stages, and while Nintendo Life flags network issues, the verdict is that this one could be something special. High praise this early is music to Switch 2 owners' ears.
• Castlevania: Belmont's Curse launches on Switch this October, and Konami has dropped a new trailer revealing the English voice cast.
• The Nintendo Music app has added the "final addition" of Mario Kart World Free Roam songs, plus two recording performances to celebrate.
• Nintendo Life's review of cosy life sim Starsand Island (Switch 2) calls it "perfectly pleasant yet imperfect" — decent company in an overflowing farm-sim genre.
• In today's "sure, Jan" file: publisher System 3 denies the trailer for James Pond Legacy: The Pond Is Not Enough (a Switch 2 compilation) was AI-generated, and Nintendo Life reports absolutely nobody is buying it.
• Small but fun: Pokémon chat badges are now available on Twitch.

Fortnite

• Fortnite Chapter 7, Season 4 is live, and Destructoid has the full weapons-and-loot rundown — each season reshuffles the pool with new items alongside favorites unvaulted from storage.
• If you're deep in the Droid Tycoon mode, Destructoid has catalogued every Fusion recipe; the mode already boasts hundreds of unique Droids, and the roster keeps growing with each update.

Call of Duty

• The Modern Warfare 4 beta drama deepens: Destructoid reports the player count on Steam halved just one day after launch, despite that 115,000+ peak. GameSpot's impressions note the game "isn't blowing me away" outside of that genuinely striking smoke tech — a rough first weekend for Activision's flagship.
• In a pointed Destructoid op-ed, one writer argues no game's "anti-cheat measures" should require players to update their entire BIOS — a spicy take as kernel-level anti-cheat debates rage on.

Indie Games

• How to Fish, Steam's latest cursed co-op sensation (hideous worm people, tiny cursed islands — macabre and delightful), just got a big update adding private lobbies, eight-player support, and anti-griefer measures. Rock Paper Shotgun begs you not to call it "friendslop."
• Kotaku spotlighted an unnamed upcoming game about finding a needle in a 5-million-piece haystack — readers are split on whether it's serene or stressful. A Steam page arrives later this week.
• PC Gamer has the story of a dev who spent 40 days in the wilderness to make a new Steam survival game. Dedication, or method writing?

Steam & PC

• The Mortal Shell 2 achievement saga continues: Rock Paper Shotgun reports players have been giving the devs "it in the shins" over Slayer Seal users losing achievements, and the studio now says it felt cornered by the situation rather than intending to lock anyone out.
• Epic is pushing back hard on an analyst's criticism that the Epic Games Store is a "bare-bones" Steam alternative where people just collect free games — insisting it's "definitely not dying" (Destructoid). The discourse rages.
• Fancy a bite of Faerûn? IGN has an exclusive excerpt of Baldur's Gate 3: Astarion, the prequel novel from author T. Kingfisher — narrated by Neil Newbon himself. Yes, that voice.

Gaming Roundup

• From Kotaku's dispatch at the humanoid robot games: one robot's rear end caught fire mid-competition, and the machines apparently love doing Fortnite emotes. The future is gloriously stupid and we're here for it.
• Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, the next chapter from Asobo Entertainment, launches soon — Destructoid has a release countdown with the exact date and time so you don't miss it.