Quick Hits

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 arrives October 23 — but not on Xbox Game Pass. Activision confirmed the shooter won't hit Game Pass at launch, only saying players can "expect" it later, while nearly 600 unionised QA workers voted to authorise a strike just days before release.
• Steam is overhauling achievements. Valve's new Achievement Sets beta splits sprawling trophy lists into DLC and season pass buckets, with easier friend comparisons — a big win for completionists drowning in ever-growing lists.
• Nintendo is bringing 19 playable demos to MCM London Comic Con, including Layton, Metaphor, and 007 titles, from October 23rd–25th.
• Jagex cancelled RuneScape: Reignited less than two weeks after announcing it, citing "a ton" of player feedback. Brutal reversal.
• Fortnitemares 2026 keeps growing, adding limited-time Sprites including the One Wish Willow Obsession Sprite.

Pokémon & Nintendo

Nintendo's booth at MCM London Comic Con (October 23rd–25th) will feature 19 playable demos, per Nintendo Life — including Layton, Metaphor, and 007. If you're in London next week, that's your queue-avoidance homework sorted.

Digital Foundry has delivered its tech review of Resident Evil 4 on Switch 2, alongside brief impressions of RE2 and RE3 — essential viewing before you double-dip on Capcom's horror trio.

Hitman: Absolution - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition finally sneaks onto the eShop on 22nd October 2026, almost a full year after the original Switch release. Agent 47 loves an October surprise.

In the Japanese physical charts, the Kingdom Hearts Collection grabbed the top spot despite a slow start — a podium finish it never managed in the UK, according to Famitsu data shared by Nintendo Life.

Nintendo Music added another Game Boy soundtrack this week, with Wario Land songs (including the timeless "That Stinks!") joining the library following last month's WarioWare: Move It! update.

Over in the Pokémon community, artists are showing off "Z Powered Friends!" Gen 7 tribute art and a fresh batch of official-style Pokémon commissions, while one fan is hand-making candy packs to hand out because TCG candy is apparently too expensive now. The fandom stays delightfully unhinged.

Fortnite

Fortnitemares 2026 has expanded, and Destructoid has guides for the event's limited-time Sprites: the One Wish Willow Obsession Sprite — inspired by "one of the biggest films of the year" — and the Spooky Dash Sprite, both only on the island for the event's duration. Grab 'em before they vanish.

Call of Duty

Modern Warfare 4 launches October 23, and Activision is confirming it will not be on Xbox Game Pass at launch — a major shakeup for the franchise's Microsoft era, with GameSpot reporting the publisher is only reminding players it'll arrive eventually.

Behind the scenes, drama: unionised Activision QA testers — almost 600 workers represented by a union formed in March 2024 — voted to authorise a strike as contract negotiations stall after more than two years. "It is time to stop playing games," the union said, per Kotaku and Rock Paper Shotgun.

Meanwhile, Activision's head marketer says Modern Warfare 4 faces a "Call of Duty tax" — the idea that the series' massive audience has "become status quo" and games media no longer covers each entry the way it used to. VGC and Kotaku both report the comments, which frame the sequel as needing to bolster flagging engagement.

Arc Raiders

Sometimes the best review is a skeptic's conversion. A Destructoid writer admits they "finally bought ARC Raiders because of PvE, and I'm having a blast" — describing how the PvE test made players unafraid to draw attention, trading the usual extraction-shooter tension for rocket-whizzing chaos. High praise for Embark's pivot.

Indie Games

Humble's Cozy After Dark Showcase Bundle is perfect spooky-season fuel: 10 spooky-lite indie games for $12, aimed at players who prefer their Halloween on the gentler side. Easy recommendation for the cozy crowd.

Steam & PC

Valve has rolled out Steam Achievement Sets in beta, splitting games' perpetually growing achievement masses into DLC and season buckets so completionists can actually see the finish line — with a new easy way to compare progress with friends.

The Epic vs. Steam launcher war got absurd this week: Epic claimed its new "vibe-coded" store was 50% faster than Steam on the same day Steam shipped a speed boost, so PC Gamer benchmarked both. Destructoid argues Steam's update "preemptively killed" Epic's one advantage, and a former Valve writer is baffled by Tim Sweeney's vibe-coded approach — "Little Tim is so obsessed with Gabe," they quipped.

And for VR fans: RPS reports that freshly released Steam Frame kernel source code contains references to a possible Steam Frame OLED variant — which would fix the headset's minor weaknesses while doing nothing for its major ones, per the outlet's analysis.

Gaming Roundup

• CONTROL Resonant has crossed 1 million sales in under a month, Remedy announced — with Destructoid cheekily noting that not being pirated might have helped.
• Warframe's month-long Epoch Operation: Taubound (October 15–November 17) sends players toward the Sentient planet of Tau, and Destructoid has the best Moonflesh farms to fuel the voyage.
• Big Walk's devs explained why it isn't on Xbox and likely never will be — "not until Microsoft and/or Xbox have been removed as BDS boycott targets," per PC Gamer.
• PC Gamer is roasting Razer's new Pokémon-themed mouse, declaring it "most definitely not the one." Some crossovers should stay in the Poké Ball.
• Prime Video's Fourth Wing adaptation has reportedly cast its Violet (Esther McGregor) and Xaden (Emilio Sakraya), per IGN.