Quick Hits

• Valve's wireless Steam Frame VR headset is now open for orders, with the cheapest model priced at a staggering £889 / $1,059 — and Rock Paper Shotgun's review verdict is already in.
• Embark Studios says Arc Raiders' Expeditions may not come back at all, with the team openly floating scrapping the entire system.
• Game Freak's next non-Pokémon game blends magical girls with real-world weather mechanics, per Kotaku.
• Sora of Kingdom Hearts fame has landed in Fortnite, and he wants to know if you've got games on your phone.
• Nintendo's Customer Appreciation Sale is live in the US, taking up to 30% off digital games, amiibo, and merch — "made possible in part by tariff-related refunds."

Pokémon & Nintendo

Beyond Pokémon, Game Freak is cooking up Ame no Chi Hare Onna, a magical-girl title whose aspects will change depending on whether it's sunny or raining in the real world, according to Kotaku — a genuinely wild design hook from the studio best known for Pikachu.

Meanwhile, with the 3DS-based Pokémon Bank shutting down and "burning the bridge between old and new generations," Kotaku reports one fan may have found a solution involving a 3DS adapter that could keep lines to GBA-era titles like FireRed and LeafGreen alive. And in the "what is happening" file: IGN reports two dog breeders were caught offering French Bulldog puppies in exchange for Pokémon cards, sparking community uproar.

The r/pokemon art scene is thriving as always — highlights include a sun-drenched Ho-Oh stained glass piece, an Espeon decked out as a Lannister ("definitely Tywin's favorite daughter"), a spooky-season headless horseman Pokémon, a Heracross style experiment, and a Sylveon gijinka that's now five of eight done.

On the Nintendo side, Hori announced the Arcade Classic Pro, an officially licensed modular arcade stick for Switch 2 that Nintendo Life calls "awesome." HORI is also releasing an electric Ocarina of Time accessory alongside Zelda: Ocarina of Time's upcoming Switch 2 release, with US pre-orders live now. Yesterday marked 25 years of both the GameCube and Luigi's Mansion — Nintendo Life celebrated with a wonderfully relatable retrospective on never actually owning the game ("It just kept floating away"). The one bit of bad news: Rayman Legends Retold, due on Switch 2 on 1st October, has been delayed at the eleventh hour.

Fortnite

Sora is officially in Fortnite, and the announcement trailer has him asking players if they've got games on their phone. Kotaku's take is more wistful than hyped, wishing they "could save all the characters I love from the crossover slop" — a fair read on the crossover machine's relentless pace, even if seeing the Kingdom Key in Fortnite is still a trip.

Call of Duty

An analyst tells IGN that last month's PlayStation blackout boycott produced "no significant change" in player counts or engagement on the platform. The platform-wide protest fizzled where it counts, according to the data.

Arc Raiders

The big one for extraction shooter fans: PC Gamer reports that Arc Raiders' Expeditions may not return, with the team saying "maybe we'll scrap the whole system." No timeline or replacement was offered, so consider Expeditions very much on thin ice.

Indie Games

Wadjet Eye's vampire RPG Nighthawks got an unexpected pre-launch scare when Valve erroneously slapped it with a Steam "Adults Only" label — the devs quipped that "Valve is under the impression that this game is way sexier" than it is. Good news via Rock Paper Shotgun: Dave Gilbert confirmed on Bluesky the label has been removed and "everything is set for launch."

Steam & PC

The Steam Frame completes Valve's hardware triumvirate — alongside the new Steam Machine and Steam Controller — as a wireless VR headset opening orders from £889 / $1,059. Rock Paper Shotgun's review calls it "another best-in-class VR headset by Valve," though it notes these are strange times for VR, with the supply of original VR games slowed "to a dribble" and virtual realities clashing with economic ones.

In storefront news, Roblox is planning to let developers release their games as standalone apps, potentially through Steam, Epic, and GOG — a huge expansion for a platform whose daily active users already rival the population of Japan. And Blizzard says Battle.net isn't trying to fight Steam and Epic for "supermassive storefront supremacy" ("We are not trying to fight those big bosses"), despite recently adding The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 to the launcher.

Gaming Roundup

Overwatch's newest hero is being hailed by PC Gamer as further proof that Team 4 is "on a generational run." In the same breath, PC Gamer argues Sombra's shift to Support is the right move — while fearing some players will take time to adjust to the role change.

That's your Tuesday haul — see you at the extraction point, trainers, soldiers, and keyblade wielders. 🎮