Dragonite Makes 30-Year History at Pokémon Worlds — Plus Singapore 2027, Ed Sheeran, and a Steam Mega-Leak

September 1, 2026 · 44 sources

Quick Hits

Pokémon Worlds made history: Per Kotaku, Dragonite helped pull off a Championship win for the first time in the series' 30 years, dethroning Charizard in the finals — while VGC reports the 2027 Pokémon World Championships are headed to Singapore, and PokémonXP won't be part of next year's event.
The Steam "teraleak" keeps ballooning: PC Gamer reports the leak now extends far beyond Valve games to third-party prototypes like Mafia 2 and Grand Theft Auto 3 — with observers calling it possibly "one of if not the biggest leaks to occur."
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4's beta is wrapping up, and Infinity Ward has responded to time-to-kill criticisms with weapon tweaks in a new beta update (IGN).
Rough industry news: Per PC Gamer, the studio behind Star Wars Zero Company — currently a Steam bestseller — has reportedly furloughed the majority of its staff.
Mark your calendars: Konami's new "Press Start" showcase streams worldwide this Thursday, September 3, promising news, updates, and "exclusive footage."

The 2026 Pokémon World Championships wrapped in San Francisco this weekend, doubling as the franchise's 30th-anniversary celebration alongside the inaugural PokémonXP fan event — Eurogamer has every announcement in one place, and VGC has the complete winner list from VGC to TCG.
In a genuinely delightful surprise, Ed Sheeran showed up to perform the Pokémon anime theme live, plus "Celestial," his song from Pokémon Scarlet and Violet (VGC).
Pokémon Unite confirmed four new Pokémon at the event, where Zeta Division took home the game's final Championship — 2026 marks the last year Unite will feature at Worlds (VGC).
Kotaku catalogued the weekend's rough edges, too: organizers admit the ticket lottery is flawed ("the public is unaware of the level of demand"), Worlds-exclusive Pikachu plushes are already listed for hundreds of dollars on eBay, and Walmart is resorting to a lottery for Pokémon TCG products amid scalper chaos around the 30th anniversary.
Over on Switch 2, the review slate is stacked: Nintendo Life calls Onimusha: Way of the Sword "a superb samurai revival" from Capcom, Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault keeps the shopkeeping-dungeon-crawling loop addictive despite big changes, and a Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker mini review dubs the Master Collection entry "the unsung hero of the series" (full Vol. 2 verdict still to come).
Pikmin 3 Deluxe also got bumped to version 1.2.0, a free update adding enhanced resolution and more on Switch 2.

Destructoid has a handy breakdown of every Iconic Droid in Fortnite's Droid Tycoon and what each one does — the elite tier of the mode's collectible roster and well worth chasing.

With the Modern Warfare 4 beta coming to a close, Infinity Ward addressed the state of the game's time to kill and tweaked a handful of weapons in its latest beta update — a clear response to one of the community's loudest criticisms (IGN).

Destructoid published a fun retrospective arguing a forgotten Rainbow Six spinoff "would have thrived in a post-ARC Raiders world" — a neat lens on how thoroughly extraction shooters have reshaped the multiplayer landscape.

Best corporate flex of the week: CD Projekt Red opened its "Arasaka hardware archives" to help an indie developer whose gear was stolen during one of at least four thefts at Gamescom (PC Gamer).
A viral indie game where you share heartbeats with your pet cat — which transforms into a giant, rideable battle kitty — has players declaring "take my money now" (IGN).
Kotaku's Week in Games spotlights a 2.5D tactics title and a retro dungeon-crawler to bridge the gap between blockbusters.
Breathedge 2 is now out in early access (Chapter 1 only), and Destructoid already has a full achievement guide for the space-survival sequel.

The teraleak is the PC story of the moment: beyond Valve's own projects, prototype builds of third-party titles like Mafia 2 and Grand Theft Auto 3 have surfaced, prompting PC Gamer to call it potentially the biggest leak in gaming history.
A 38-year-old NES platformer is getting a Steam remake from its original husband-and-wife development team, who describe it as their "final major game product" (PC Gamer).
Cold Symmetry shipped a massive Mortal Shell 2 update that fixes the souls-like's stingy economy and buffs certain gear (GameSpot).
IGN published a settings guide to squeeze maximum performance out of The Blood of Dawnwalker on PC.
In the "bravest release window" category: the developers behind the remaster of 2002's Godzilla Destroy All Monsters Melee told GameSpot they aren't worried about launching near GTA 6 in November.

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma says making Halo popular again is a priority — though the franchise's co-creator questions whether it's even possible at this point (GameSpot).
Speaking of GTA 6: with November's launch looming and a recent Netflix preview in the books, fans are bracing themselves for one absolutely massive download (GameSpot).
Marvel Snap's September season, AXIS: Inversion, flips heroes into villains and vice versa with nine new cards (Destructoid).