Quick Hits

• The Vault of Valve has cracked open. A colossal leak of old Valve development files — reported at around 12TB by Eurogamer and 13TB by Kotaku — has surfaced online, spanning 2003–2013 and allegedly containing early Portal 2 builds, Left 4 Dead 2 betas, and even a potential Half-Life 2: Episode Three weapon. Dataminers, start your engines.
• Pokémon Worlds went supernova. The closing ceremony delivered Pokémon: Wild Card (a TCG animated movie) in 2027, Z Mega Evolutions in Pokémon Champions this September, four new Pokémon Unite fighters (Morpeko lands September 4th), dual-type cards in Pokémon TCG Pocket this October, and new LEGO Smart Play sets in 2027.
• Activision turned anti-cheat into must-watch TV, filming a legal rep hand-delivering a cease-and-desist to a notorious Call of Duty cheat seller's Ohio home — with the message "We will find you."
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4's final beta weekend is live and now open on Switch 2 without a pre-order — but Eurogamer reports Steam numbers haven't budged despite Warzone's arrival and a transformative patch.
• Gamescom heartbreak: multiple exhibitors report overnight equipment thefts in Cologne, with one indie developer saying the loss effectively ended his show early (Eurogamer).

Pokémon & Nintendo

What a weekend in San Francisco. President Tsunekazu Ishihara closed the 2026 Pokémon World Championships by announcing Pokémon: Wild Card, an animated film based on the Trading Card Game arriving in 2027 — per IGN, the first Pokémon movie in seven years, and the teaser trailer is already up. Kotaku has a full roundup of everything announced at the ceremony.

The reveals kept stacking up at PokémonXP: Pokémon Unite gets four new playable Pokémon, with Morpeko arriving September 4th, 2026 — and as Nintendo Life gleefully notes, "all the Eeveelutions are here." Pokémon Champions adds Z Mega Evolutions this September ("stay tuned for more details"), while Pokémon TCG Pocket introduces dual-type cards this October, starting with Mega Mewtwo X ex. And the LEGO Group teased five new Smart Play Pokémon sets landing in 2027.

The event wasn't without chaos: Kotaku reports the Worlds Pin Rally was shut down by the fire marshal over immense overcrowding — and eBay scalper listings are already flooding in. IGN spoke with The Pokémon Company about the lottery system, long lines, and limited workshop access, with roughly 50,000 attendees in town.

On the Nintendo side: Capcom's Mega Man series producer says the company "would love" to revisit Mega Man X — "if there is a chance" — with Mega Man Override remaining the current focus. Nintendo Life's mini review of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots – Master Collection Version on Switch 2 calls it "better than ever" (full Vol. 2 verdict still to come), and fresh Gamescom footage shows the 007 First Light Switch 2 port looking sharp. For your backlog: Nintendo Life crowned August's best eShop games on Switch 1 & 2, and IGN compiled its top-reviewed Switch 2 games a year-plus into the console's life.

Call of Duty

Activision is publicizing its war on cheaters in the most theatrical way possible: the company posted footage of a legal representative arriving at the Ohio home of cheat maker Elocarry to serve a cease-and-desist in person (Eurogamer, PC Gamer). The accompanying message? "We will find you."

Meanwhile, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4's second and final beta weekend is underway — this open session adds Switch 2 as a platform and requires no pre-order. But despite Warzone's arrival and what Eurogamer calls a transformative patch, Steam player numbers reportedly haven't moved from the first weekend.

Arc Raiders

Quiet on the Embark front, but Destructoid has a fun retrospective arguing a forgotten Rainbow Six spinoff would have thrived in a post-ARC Raiders world — a thoughtful look at how the extraction-shooter landscape has shifted. Good reading material while we wait for the next update.

Indie Games

Sobering news from Cologne: Eurogamer reports multiple Gamescom exhibitors had laptops and other equipment stolen from their booths overnight, with one indie developer saying the theft effectively ended his show early. Here's hoping the community rallies behind the affected teams.

Steam & PC

The Valve leak is the story of the day. The archive — dated 2003 to 2013 — reportedly includes Portal 2's elusive beta build, beta builds of Left 4 Dead 2, and pre-release builds of potentially thousands of first- and third-party games (Kotaku). PC Gamer flags a potential Half-Life 2: Episode Three weapon among the files, and Eurogamer says fans are already combing through it all for traces of the long-cancelled episode. Also from PC Gamer: the Steam Week in Review breaks down the top 10 most popular genres on Steam right now.

Gaming Roundup

• VFX legend Phil Tippett (Star Wars, Jurassic Park) has retired and shuttered his California studio following a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, auctioning off over 40 years of movie memorabilia — though Tippett Studio has since clarified its current business status (IGN, Kotaku).
• GameSpot takes stock of Xbox's most tumultuous year and finds the company kept at least one big promise: the 75+ day-one releases Ultimate subscribers were promised after the October 2025 Game Pass Ultimate price hike appear to have materialized.
• Eurogamer reports Forza Horizon 6's PS5 port seems to have been quietly delayed — it's been months since Xbox mentioned that version at all.
• Dessert crossover of the day: Crumbl launched six Minecraft-themed cookies today, and yes, per GameSpot, they're all square-shaped.

That's the digest! Tomorrow brings Morpeko to Pokémon Unite later this week — see you on the roster.