You know an action game has the magic when you come out of a sequence thinking "How the hell did I survive that?" Your hands shaking with adrenaline, the controller slick with sweat. Sekiro had it. Doom Eternal had it, and Returnal had it too, with Housemarque's timeloop sci-fi thriller offering some of the most thrilling action of this generation.
Microsoft Gaming boss Ashsa Sharma and Xbox content boss Matt Booty have shared an open letter with the world about what they see as the future of Xbox. The topline takeaways are that "Microsoft Gaming" will now simply be known as "Xbox", thank god, that console is still at the heart of operation, thank god, but also that there's significant reshaping to be done. As the letter says: "The model that got us here won't be the one that takes us forward."
Do you remember Shuhei 'yosp' Yoshida, former PlayStation boss and the head of PlayStation Indies from 2019 until his retirement from the company in 2025? The likeable good-natured executive has recently come out and stated that he doesn't necessarily think that day-and-date PC releases for triple-A PlayStation games is a very good idea (but, also, that he hasn't seen any solid proof that Sony is abandoning PC releases altogether despite reports to the contrary).
Sega is planning to remind us all that it still has plenty of successful franchises under its massive umbrella, even if we haven't heard about them for many years. The publisher has revealed a programme of events to celebrate its vintage games throughout the course of 2026 via special "anniversary projects". All this will take place under the banner of the new-fangled 'Sega Universe'.
Mario fans, throw up your caps in celebration: in an unprecedented move, Nintendo has uploaded (some of) the original soundtrack for Super Mario Galaxy 1 + 2 onto Spotify. This is notable for a number of reasons: most notably, it's the first time the company has opted to publish its music on a major streaming service. Secondly, the "a special selection" of tracks from the OSTs will only be available "for a limited time", meaning you don't get the full experience (as you do with, say Bandai Namco's OST uploads), and won't be able to listen forever. Thirdly, this appears to be an exclusive deal with Spotify: Qobuz, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music all appear to have been left out of this deal.
After publishing a company wide memo on her plans for Xbox earlier this week, freshly-minted Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has given a rare - if less than candid - interview, elaborating just a tad more on team green's future.
Hello and welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little about the games we've been playing. This week, Mat remembers when games were just games and not world-shaking conquerers; Marie is impatient for her vampires to get it on; Bertie discovers depth in ridiculousless; and Dom politely calls for help.
The Bootleg Bazaar in Portofiro is a chimera of ex-Soviet bloc organisms that have nestled together in a robust show of scrappy, second-hand capitalism at its finest. It's an entity I have mostly understood from movies and television and books, and a fairly problematic Russian neighbour in college who enjoyed throwing knives at his closet door for fun (I believe he is now married and owns a paper factory).
The former director of Naughty Dog's cancelled The Last of Us multiplayer game has vowed he will never let something he works on "not see the light of day again".
Tweet
Asha Sharma's Xbox appears to be preparing new tiers of its Game Pass subscription service.
A little over a month after Capcom announced its excellent Resident Evil Requiem had surpassed 6m copies sold - officially making it the fastest-selling game in the survival horror series' 30-year history - it looks like another major milestone has been reached.
It looks like Star Wars: Galactic Racer will release on 6th October, 2026.
Comment