The Verge’s gaming section brings the latest video game news, reviews of the most exciting releases, and interviews with the industry’s biggest names. We cover everything from PlayStation and Xbox blockbusters, to quirky Nintendo games, to the cool indie gems on PC and Android that you might otherwise miss.
Nintendo is celebrating the first annual Pikmin Day by debuting a new series of short films.
Plus, in this week’s Installer: A new place to read books, a huge new game for iOS, an impressive new robovac, and more.
Sadly, they’re so limited that they’re only available through a lottery. But these red and green Fenders feature sprites and pixel art from the original games under a transparent, tinted finish, plus a built-in bit crusher for authentic 8-bit tones.
That’s the logline for Death Stranding anime Isolations, which just dropped its first short teaser. Produced by Hideo Kojima, the series releases on Disney Plus and Hulu some time in 2027. It’s separate from the live-action Death Stranding film from A24, which is set to start filming next year.
Looks pretty darn easy, based on a video from Austin Evans. The key part starts at 5:33.
If you own Pokémon Legends: Z-A, you’ll soon be able to get a Poké Ball Pattern Vivillon for the first time in a decade. This form of Vivillon has only ever been available via special event distributions, and the last one was in 2016. (The first, in 2014, was only in Paris.) The exact dates of the distribution are still TBA, but it’s on its way, so don’t miss it!
Three weeks ago, I told you a free mod for a 10-year-old game is one of the best things I’ve ever played in VR. That wasn’t an exaggeration, and now it has multiplayer. Last night, I grappling-hooked and wall-ran and summoned titans from the sky to battle human foes. At 2AM, I still wanted more. Join me?
That’s the subject line of a real press release I just got in my email. Glover will “direct, write, executive produce, and star in the series,” according to the announcement. Stephen Glover, his brother, will also be a writer and executive producer. No word on when the series might actually be out.
That’s according to developer Maddy Thorson, who also said that TowerFall had been removed as well.
Earlier this month, Big Walk developers House House said that the game skipped Xbox to support the BDS movement.
Full production of restoring vaulted content is expected to begin in February, and from there, “we expect full production will be about 12mos. to fully complete the porting process,“ according to a blog post.
Bungie is also teasing updates to come about a Destiny 2 “celebration,” a project Bungie is calling Destiny “Legacy,” and something “Redacted.” The next major communications beat for Destiny is planned for February.
It’s packed with details and worth reading in full. There’s a lot of fascinating stuff about the game’s systems and seemingly incredible level of detail, but I was most intrigued by a tidbit about how quitting crime is a “a fundamental theme” of the game’s story:
“These games, maybe some people think, ‘Oh, they’re power fantasies’,” Nelson says. “Sure. But what if these characters want something else?”
The Duskbloods — an ambitious, Switch 2-exclusive vampire-themed multiplayer game from FromSoftware — is no longer coming out this year. The studio says this will allow “time for final adjustments to game rules and balancing.” In the meantime, you could always read my profile on the studio from this summer.
A new GTA VI clip in the latest episode of South Park shows Jason grabbing a bag of dog poop off one of Leonida’s beaches and whacking an NPC in the face with it. You can try it yourself when GTA VI comes out on November 19th.
Epic’s VP of development, Marcus Wassmer, told This Week in Videogames that “we are definitely using AI to develop code and features for Unreal Engine.” Wassmer says that the UE team has seen benefits like “faster” development of features, and the ability for engineers to “explore ideas” that they haven’t had “the time to tackle.”
CEO Tim Sweeney said this month that Epic is retooling for “maximum AI acceleration,” and the company said it “vibe coded” its updated games launcher.
[This Week in Videogames]
While we all await a return to Hyrule next week, Nintendo held its latest indie game showcase, which included everything from Game Boy-style adventures to a co-op raccoon simulator. We also finally got a release date for one of my most-anticipated games: My Arms Are Longer Now. You can catch up on the full event here.
I love the idea of waking up to a The Legend of Zelda themed alarm clock, but I’m less in love with the idea of silencing an alarm by handling a tiny pointed replica of the Master Sword when I’m still half asleep. The alarm clock, and a collection of other Zelda-themed items, will be available as part of an upcoming Banpresto merch lottery in Japan.
Just in time for its launch on the iPhone — which is out today — the space exploration game is getting its fifth major update of the year. It’s called “Forsaken” and tasks players with searching for “rare haunted tech or biological horrors.” As always, the update is totally free.
If you’re as excited as we are for the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake for the Nintendo Switch 2, you can pick up a copy at Best Buy at midnight ET on November 5th. The retailer also announced that physical locations will have limited quantities of Nintendo’s special edition console and Switch 2 Pro Controller on release day as well.
Discord acknowledges that long-form conversations that can be popular on message boards, like help posts and theory crafting, have moved to Discord where they’re “inaccessible to the wider internet.”
The option to make the websites already existed, but turning them on for all Discoverable Servers, a change set for November 16th, could make some information buried inside Discord easier to find. Admins can opt channels out from showing up.
The union vote will take place from November 12th through November 26th, according to an emailed press release from the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB). GTA VI is scheduled to release on November 19th.
If the staffers vote in favor, “the Rockstar Game Workers Union will become the biggest recognised union in the UK games sector,” the IWGB says.
We have mixed feelings about AI, but 0:22 in this video made my inner kid jump for joy! This is what I hoped Magic Leap would be. Instead, it’s game reverse engineering bringing all my childhood dreams to life. This one’s based on the full open-source Mario64 decomp, says creator Lucas Martinic, with assist from Claude Opus 5.5. He says he’ll release a repo so people can try.
While all of the attention right now is on the upcoming remake of Ocarina of Time, Nintendo announced that it’s going to stream an indie-focused showcase tomorrow. It’ll be around 15 minutes long and air starting at 10AM ET.
Service for both the mobile and Nintendo Switch versions of the free-to-play Pokémon-themed MOBA will end on March 23rd, 2027, just after the previously announced Aeos Crown 2027 Tokyo competitive tournament is scheduled to conclude. New memberships are no longer being accepted starting today.
[Pokémon UNITE]
Wintory, the composer for Journey, some songs in Hades II, and many other games, shared tracks he had recorded with a full orchestra as part of “conversations” to potentially be part of the now-canceled next game in the Mass Effect franchise.
After hearing this music and seeing the game’s leaked trailer, I think I’ll always wonder what could have been.
The Ghost of Yōtei developer is laying off 24 people, Aftermath reports.
Update: Aftermath now says 24 staffers, not 26, were let go.
Sega recently pulled the recently-launched Complete Edition of the game, which was made in part by an external developer, after users found bugs and upscaling seemingly done by AI.
“At Creative Assembly we do not use generative AI to create game assets, including AI-generated art,” Creative Assembly’s VP of Total War Roger Collum, said in a big post on Reddit. “We demand the same of any external developers we work with.”
Using a flexible OLED display salvaged from a Royole FlexPai phone, a talented modder has created a folding PS2 handheld (they’ve called the PlayStation 2 Duo) by miniaturing the motherboard inside the original console, adding their own controller hardware, and wrapping it all in an custom enclosure you can 3D print yourself.
The so-called “Father of the PlayStation” told VGC that while he understands why users are upset about Sony phasing out game discs, he thinks it’s the right decision. But I’m also not sure he understands what a “metaphor” is.
“I understand that physical discs have become a metaphor for ‘owning’ games. I really understand that mentality… But nobody thinks [physical media] is necessary for a networked device like a smartphone, for example, because people feel that they will keep their content. So it’s a mentality.
“I really understand [why some people are upset], but I don’t think it’s economically reasonable. Maybe it’s a mentality issue.”
About a year after Valve introduced the feature, which recommends new and upcoming games you might be interested in and even shows some on an actual calendar, it’s now considered a “full feature” of the Steam Store, Valve says.
My personal calendar page has me pretty dead to rights; among other games, it recommends Final Fantasy Resonance, Star Wars: Galactic Racer, both of which I reviewed and really liked, and some indie games I already had my eye on.
[Steam News]
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and team countered by asking for $800 million, and Netflix has pulled its offer, Puck reports in an article discussing the new leadership at Netflix.
Xbox launched an “XP” division this month that will work on adaptations of its games, and Xbox is already working with Netflix on a Diablo animated series.
Star Wars: Galactic Racer was available to stream on Luna at no extra cost to Prime subscribers the same day it launched on other platforms, and in a post celebrating the one-year anniversary of Luna’s relaunch, Amazon says it plans to bring more “major” day-and-date releases to Prime members.
Luna’s user base has also grown “fivefold” since the relaunch, Amazon’s gaming GM, Jeff Gattis, says in the post. I spoke to Gattis earlier this year about Amazon’s plan for games.
[Amazon Game Studios]
Late yesterday, I laid out five ways Microsoft can try to make lemonade out of RAMageddon, but one feels likelier to me now readers have weighed in: the cell phone subsidy model. In the K-shaped economy, wealthier buyers could buy an “unlocked” Xbox, but most could get it “free” with 36-month (or longer!) subscription.
But I also think many will reject that and stick with what they already have.
If you’ve got one of the Microsoft/Asus collab handhelds, let me know if this is game-changing? You can find the update in Command Center > Armory Crate SE > Update Center > Preview Updates. Asus does warn “it may still contain bugs or instability, designed for those who can’t live without the latest and greatest.”
In 2024, Hallmark added a tiny version of the original Xbox to its holiday ornament collection and then followed up last year with a miniature Xbox 360. For 2026 it’s returning to Microsoft’s first console, but the translucent green Halo special edition version. It will be available at the end of the month for $27.99 and includes a glowing greed LED and sound effects.
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A quick peek at eBay reveals that just the manual for the US version of Jaleco’s Avenging Spirit currently sells for over $150. The game (with its coveted artwork) has just been added to Nintendo Switch Online’s Game Boy library along with the Shigeru Miyamoto-produced Mole Mania and Pinball: Revenge of the ‘Gator.
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A rise in AI-powered decomps, recomps, and ports has thrust the community into chaos.
