Quick Hits

• Pokémon HOME Version 4.1.0 is live right now, finally adding Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen compatibility after months of trainers waiting on The Pokémon Company.
• Infinity Ward is betting big on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4's DMZ, calling it "Call of Duty's definitive extraction shooter experience" and positioning the extraction mode as another major pillar of the series.
• Arc Raiders and The Finals are getting film and TV adaptations, with Embark Studios collaborating with Chernin Entertainment — the production company behind the Backrooms.
• Xbox chief Asha Sharma told staff the business is "growing again" after an "all time low" following mass layoffs and studio closures — a claim GameSpot notes came without any real evidence.
• Final previews for Nintendo Switch Sports Resort are in, with the Switch 2 release locked for 22nd October.

Pokémon & Nintendo

Trainers, it's a good day. Beyond the big HOME update, Pokémon Pokopia has a new Mystery Gift distribution available now — and it's free furniture. Codes have been slow to arrive since the game launched earlier this year, and this one lands just as the Chansey Plant code wrapped up yesterday, so redeem it while you can.

Fossil fans, start planning: The touring Pokémon Fossil Museum is leaving Chicago and heading to Colorado in 2027 — the community has it landing at Denver's Museum of Nature & Science in May 2027, and r/pokemon is already buzzing about snagging tickets.

Deal hunters: Amazon's October Prime Day is discounting all things Pokémon, and IGN has also rounded up the best UK LEGO deals spanning Pokémon and Star Wars sets.

Community corner: r/pokemon fan art is thriving today, including a Roxie tribute from Black 2 & White 2 and a striking Tsareena piece (Bluesky mirror included).

On the Nintendo side:

• The final Nintendo Switch Sports Resort preview round-up is here ahead of the 22nd October Switch 2 launch — Nintendo Life asks the eternal question: Wuhu (woohoo) or buhu (boohoo)?
• Warhammer Survivors, Auroch Digital's "Bolt Hell" Vampire Survivors-like built with Poncle, arrives on Switch next month.
• EB Games is opening North America's first permanent Nintendo "store-within-a-store" at its Toronto flagship later this month.
• Rise of the Tomb Raider's Switch 2 version is getting a Limited Run physical release, with pre-orders opening later this week.
• Nintendo Life's eShop Selects for September crowns the best eShop games on Switch 1 & 2.

Fortnite

Fortnitemares is in full swing in Chapter 7, Season 4, and Destructoid has two essential guides: a full roundup of every Fortnitemares Sprite, their abilities, and how to unlock them — plus a walkthrough for piecing together the code needed to activate Hope's Lobby Hack in the Admin Panel.

Call of Duty

The headline story: Eurogamer details how Infinity Ward is going all-in on DMZ in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, with the studio describing it as "Call of Duty's definitive extraction shooter experience" in a wide-ranging blog post — a clear signal the mode is meant to become a standing pillar of the franchise.

Arc Raiders

Massive day for Embark fans. Per Kotaku and Eurogamer, both Arc Raiders and The Finals are set for film and TV adaptations, with Embark collaborating with Chernin Entertainment. And in-game, the Frozen Trail update — billed as the game's biggest in the past six months — is nearly here, with Destructoid tracking the exact release countdown.

Indie Games

• GameSpot has a delightfully creepy feature on a solo horror dev whose game connects to a real haunted island in Mexico — complete with a one-eyed haunted doll.
• Rock Paper Shotgun previewed Car Park Capital, a city builder where utopian public transport networks and green living are the default… until you get your hands on the zoning tools.

Steam & PC

• Kotaku reports Valve is set to make $20 billion this year via Steam — and argues the platform owes developers big-time, given who actually generates that profit.
• The developer behind the Banjo-Kazooie: Recompiled PC port says claims that genAI speeds up PC ports of classic games are "false" or missing the point.
• Sonic Team's Takashi Iizuka dismisses the apparent inevitability of remakes: "you're essentially providing the same experience again."
• Chart curiosity: a strip mahjong sequel is topping the Japanese Steam charts, and its producer opens up about being "hopelessly devoted" to its characters — and left penniless as a teen.

Gaming Roundup

• Xbox turmoil, continued: Ninja Theory developers are announcing redundancies as the studio's consultation process with Xbox concludes after a second wave of cuts, and Halo Studios says it's "absolutely our intent" to release a previously announced Halo novel despite layoffs and a rumored lore reboot from Activision.
• Footage from Xbox's canceled Perfect Dark reboot has surfaced via MP1st, showing destructible environments, fruit physics, and parkour.
• Behaviour Interactive, the studio behind Dead by Daylight, is hiring for a triple-A sci-fi first-person shooter with "a high realism bar."
• Bungie's Marathon roadmap details five months of content through March — anything beyond that is a question mark — as the Nightfall Refresh goes live now.
• Marvel Rivals' spooky midseason 10.5 update brings Avengers limited-time modes but, for the first time in several seasons, no new hero.
• Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival from Saber Interactive is almost here — Destructoid has the exact release countdown.
• Warhorse's co-founder says "AI is not a get out of jail free card" and argues execs hold a "simplified mental model" of what it means for games.