Quick Hits

• ARC Raiders' "biggest update yet" is on the way. Embark teased the extraction shooter's next major content patch and announced a premiere for next week (Destructoid).
• Stellar Blade's Switch 2 demo is live today on the eShop, released alongside a new Bayonetta collaboration trailer (Nintendo Life).
• Zelda momentum is real: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is nine weeks from Switch 2, and Nintendo of America's COO promises "This is just the beginning" (Nintendo Life, Eurogamer).
• Zach Cregger's Resident Evil movie broke multiple box office records in its gruesome opening week (Destructoid).
• Steam Frame demand is wild — over 35,000 people say they signed up, and fewer than half have a reservation (PC Gamer).

Pokémon & Nintendo

The countdown is ON: Nintendo Life has launched a nine-week countdown to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on Switch 2 with a dungeon-crawl retrospective series, kicking off with a "tree-mendous" introduction to the game's opening dungeon. Back to the roots, indeed.

The bigger picture is just as rosy: Eurogamer notes the Switch 2 became the fastest-selling video game hardware device in US history — toppling the PS4's record — and with the Ocarina of Time remake's reveal added to the pile, Nintendo of America's COO is promising "This is just the beginning."

From the TGS 2026 show floor, Nintendo Life went hands-on with a batch of upcoming Switch 2 games, including selections from what it's calling 2026's shoo-in "Publisher of the Year."

In housekeeping news: multiple Switch games received Switch 2 compatibility fixes following a major firmware update, part of Nintendo's ongoing patching of its now-more-than-a-year-old system. Meanwhile, Konami is reviving Castlevania next month with Castlevania: Belmont's Curse on Switch — a demo is arriving with it, and save data will carry over.

Pokémon's 30th anniversary celebrations keep delivering: All Nippon Airways unveiled its gorgeous Green Pokémon Jet, complete with themed cups and napkins (GameSpot), IGN ranked the 10 best Eevee TCG cards of all time, and Kotaku ranked all 34 Pikachu cards in the anniversary TCG set.

Community corner from r/pokemon: one trainer is completing a living dex by hunting every Vivillon pattern in X/Y on a North American 3DS, while another is crowdsourcing Pokémon-like recommendations for PC and mobile.

Arc Raiders

Raiders, assemble — Embark has officially teased ARC Raiders' "biggest update yet" and locked in a premiere for next week (Destructoid). It's the game's first major content patch in many months, and while the full scope is still under wraps, that's enough reason to get your squad back together and start planning raids.

Indie Games

• Kotaku reports a YouTube channel is facing accusations of taking advantage of "vulnerable, first-time indie developers" with expensive advertising campaigns that allegedly deliver little, if any, return on investment — a cautionary tale for any dev budgeting for marketing.
• Feel-good story of the day: a player accused the action-RPG Luminary of using AI for its only voiced character less than an hour into the game — and Refractive Entertainment's dev revealed the voice was actually his wife (GameSpot).
• Fun catch from Destructoid: Cregger's Resident Evil movie seems to have accidentally adapted a darling indie game — worth seeking out if the film leaves you wanting more.

Steam & PC

• Storage warning: Final Fantasy 7 Revelation will require around 200GB when it launches next year, per director Naoki Hamaguchi (IGN). Start clearing space now.
• Policy watch: under the EU Kids Act's current draft, even single-player games on Steam might require age verification, according to an MEP's senior policy adviser — the proposed rules govern how under-15s access social media, AI chatbots, and online games (Rock Paper Shotgun).
• Deal alert: Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is at a "royally great" discount (GameSpot), and Resident Evil Village Gold Edition hit its lowest-ever price of $14.99 on Steam with all DLC included — basically a second game for free.
• Keep Driving, the tractor-battling teenage road trip RPG that charmed the entire Rock Paper Shotgun staff, is getting official mod support via Steam Workshop later this month.
• Horror fans: Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival has a playable demo on Steam right now, plus a new trailer, ahead of its October 8 launch (Eurogamer).

Gaming Roundup

• Bruce Straley, game director of The Last of Us, has apologized to Santa Monica Studio's God of War: Laufey team after his comments calling recent AAA games "boring" brought "uninvited and unnecessary negative attention" to the studio (IGN, GameSpot).
• Sony's Helldivers movie may have found its new very large man: Reacher's Alan Ritchson is reportedly replacing Jason Momoa as the lead, per Deadline (GameSpot).
• Games Workshop released a new trailer for Astartes II — billed as the most anticipated Warhammer 40,000 animation ever — with key details confirmed (IGN).
• And more on that Resident Evil movie phenomenon: Destructoid reports it's on track to earn far beyond any previous Resident Evil film, while PC Gamer argues the adaptation matters more for nailing its survival horror roots than strict lore accuracy.