Take-Two Interactive's hunt for the person or people responsible for recent GTA 6 leaks is "rapidly evolving," the publisher says in newly revealed court documents.

Take-Two was quick to file DMCA subpoena requests for Discord and Microsoft in the wake of the initial leaks, but a new filing (via TorrentFreak) is very different in nature. Not only is it much more specific, seeking "targeted information" related to the previous subpoena and individual Discord users, but Take-Two is also requesting that it remain sealed to avoid benefitting the leakers. The previous request, which cast an extremely wide net in terms of the information it sought, remains available to the public.

"Take-Two has identified one additional Discord user and obtained additional identifying information for a previously identified Discord user, as well as additional information concerning the community servers identified in its prior subpoena for which it now seeks more targeted information," reads the new request.

Take-Two says the subpoena attachment "reveals highly sensitive, confidential information about an ongoing investigation into copyright infringement and the misappropriation of Take-Two's confidential information."

"Public disclosure of this information could compromise Take-Two's ongoing investigation and even tip off the alleged infringers as to the nature and progress of Take-Two's investigation and information Take-Two has gathered about the infringement," Take-Two writes. In a footnote, it adds that its investigation "is rapidly evolving and ongoing," and that the new subpoena request "seeks different information" than the first one.

It's worth noting that Discord's marketing director, Ryan Rigney, said as recently as August 25 that the company had yet to be served a subpoena from Take-Two, which may or may not have contributed to the language in the latest request. Either way, the court has yet to make a decision on Take-Two's request for a sealed subpoena and nothing new has been issued so far.

This does seem to suggest Take-Two's investigation is heating up very quickly as the GTA 6 leaks have only been going on for a couple of weeks. It also seems the company is narrowing the scope of its investigation down to specific people potentially involved, which would definitely make me very nervous if I had anything to do with the leaks.

GTA 6 became too realistic for even Rockstar so the devs had to cut a system for restocking Jason and Lucia's fridge to "find the right balance between realism and ease of play"

Alien: Isolation 2 art director Ana Sopikova has one very simple piece of advice for anyone who might struggle to overcome their fear while playing what's sure to be a terrifying sequel: just crank down the music.

GamesRadar+ sat down with Sopikova during Gamescom 2026, and we asked about Creative Assembly's approach to balancing tension so that players feel appropriately oppressed but not consistently panicked to the point of risking a cardiovascular event. Basically, how scary is too scary? As a horror geek with the unfortunate affliction of being a total wuss, this is important information.

"My advice for all the people who are too scared is just honestly to turn the music down," Sopikova says. "Many people don't realize how much music plays in building that tension. And actually the alien might not even be there, but it's just a dark corridor, and this very low-key scary music is playing, and instantly you're paralyzed, and you just can't move anywhere."

Sopikova says things like music, lighting, and of course gameplay all go into crafting a tense atmosphere that can be dialed up and down as needed to strike a balance somewhere between boring and "on the verge of having a heart attack."

"We don't want players to constantly be on the peak of horror, on the verge of having a heart attack, because then they just get used to it, and it's not scary anymore," says Sopikova. "Obviously, it's a narrative game. There is a story to follow. So you see, we take in all the elements, both visual and audio, how everything comes together, animation, and gameplay, and we're just trying to build that experience with all the different moving parts to really support the peaks and valleys."

Alien: Isolation, along with Resident Evil 7, is one of very few games that I can admit were a little too scary for me at times. As much as I applaud Creative Assembly and Capcom for having the chops to make a seasoned horror veteran as stressed out as I was playing those games, I remember having genuinely unpleasant reactions to certain scenes, to the point where I had to take breaks to catch my breath.

I think Capcom's decision to break up the tension with Grace and Leon chapters in Resident Evil Requiem was brilliant, and I hope Creative Assembly has something in mind for the perpetually anxious in Alien: Isolation 2.

15 years after the first game made horror history, Alien Isolation 2 unleashes a smarter, meaner Xenomorph

For gamers who've been following industry news long enough, Sony's recent announcement of plans to end physical PlayStation discs echoed Microsoft's plans for always-online DRM back on the Xbox One. Now, Sony is spiritually following another dead-end path first embraced by Xbox One: live TV.

A PS5 update today adds a "Live TV on PS5" app to the media tab on US consoles. The results look like any other faux-cable streaming service, with a big list of channels to tune into. The service promises an array of movies, TV shows, anime, sports broadcasts, and more, and specific shows like Naruto, Sailor Moon, Community, The Walking Dead, and others are noted in the announcement.

It's along the same lines as the speciality TV stations provided on Roku boxes and similar devices, and honestly, it's a decent value-add for PS5 users. Did I buy a game console to watch Community reruns? No, but I don't mind the option to put on some background noise in the afternoon.

But there's a reason that the trailer for this feature is filled with comments like "it’s like Xbox One all over again," "they've gone full Xbox One," and "hey Don Mattrick is that really you?" When the Xbox One was unveiled in 2013, it was presented not as a game console, but as an all-in-one home entertainment box, which would work as a sort of souped-up DVR that would integrate with cable subscriptions.

This initiative, led by executive Don Mattrick, helped build the impression that Xbox One was abandoning the core gaming audience that the brand was meant to serve. Then came the controversy over the console's always-online DRM plans, which Sony was happy to dunk on alongside the rest of the gaming world.

While Xbox One eventually ditched the DRM and the TV stuff was ultimately a footnote on the console, bad PR dealt the platform a blow that Xbox as a whole has yet to recover from. Now, over a decade later, it's a much different world. Consumer buying habits have shifted mostly to digital. People use their video game consoles as streaming boxes all the time.

But bad PR is bad PR in any era, and Sony's decision to end discs has kicked off a controversy that's shown no signs of slowing down. Whether it actually affects the company's bottom line remains to be seen, but one thing's for sure – PlayStation is making all the wrong choices if it's hoping to win in the court of public opinion.

Sony lawyers argue that nobody is stupid enough to believe they actually own digital games, because then only one person could buy GTA 6.

The Saber Interactive C-suite still has generative AI on the brain after CEO Matt Karch quipped earlier this month that he wished he had replaced a fired Rideshare "Stimulator" writer with AI – and then apologized. That whole situation was embarrassing, but there's more to be had as Saber chief creative officer Tim Willits describes the developer's ongoing AI experiments.

"We're going to try to figure out if it works or if it doesn't work," Willits tells Eurogamer. The executive designates driving sim Rideshare "Stimulator" – whose new AI disclosure on Steam says contains AI-generated music, voices, localization, plus AI-generated passenger missions – as a practice run. Willits admits, "We don't as an industry really know how it fits, and consumers don't really know what they want or they don't want, so it's kind of like a disruptive technology that society has seen for a long time."

Currently, "We don't actually use it on our projects except for our experiment with Rideshare," says Willits. "We don't have an official policy; we don't use it outright across all our projects." Saber is otherwise working on a new Stuntman: Hollywood game, Jurassic Park: Survival, and an untitled John Wick game for PS5, but I'm most looking forward to Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival. Saber's executives will have to try really hard to dissuade me from enjoying that game, out October 8. '80s-inspired gore beckons me, unlike AI's siren song – which sounds like the garbage disposal.

But Willits seems to think naysayers like me will soon splash around with AI like babies having tubby time after games like Rideshare figure out its secrets. Willits tells Eurogamer, "Maybe I'm being too optimistic, but somebody will make the Half-Life 2 of AI."

"I'm making a silly example, but someone will make something that will change people's minds," the CCO continues. "When Steam first came out, people were like, 'I'm not going to put some silly program on my machine!' Now if Steam went away, the end of the world would happen. I think, give the industry a few years and we'll figure it out."

Unfortunately for Willits, much of the industry has seemed to have already figured it out. GamesRadar+'s poll of over 30 major developers revealed generative AI is a wholly unpopular technology, and a corporate IP lawyer even told GamesRadar+ she recommends all studios avoid it since "it's not worth the legal liability that it brings to you."

From a consumer's perspective, I also think there's a huge difference between an industry-changing service like Steam and generative AI . For one thing, the former provides an actual service. Steam is its own, unique storefront with its own utility, while I'd always prefer a human being to generate a game's concept art or clever writing than AI, which ultimately can only either chew or spit.

Still, Willits is optimistic. He says about Rideshare "Stimulator," "It's important for teams to make small games to keep the lights on – that's what this is. So if you're going to take a bet, if you're going to experiment, you better do it on something small. You don't want to risk it on something big, because there's risk there, but somebody will."

So if someone slid up to Saber and pitched that Half-Life 2 of AI Willits was talking about, the developer would be interested. The CCO says, "If one of our teams came up to us with an idea they thought could change everything, of course we'd try it." But I'm seriously doubting that there are many people who would want to make it.

After AI backlash, Assassin's Creed creator says 1666: Amsterdam "won't be using any AI anymore" and only used it "in conception and pre-production."

Nintendo Switch 2 prices will permanently increase on Tuesday, September 1, so today is your last chance to grab the console at its launch MSRP.

In the US, the baseline Nintendo Switch 2 price will increase from $449.99 to $499.99. Currently, a Switch 2 bundle with a game will generally run you about $500, which helps put this price hike into perspective.

In Europe, prices will jump €30 to €499.99. In the UK, a Switch 2 will now cost £419.99, an increase of £24.

Nintendo revealed new, price-adjusted Switch 2 bundles earlier this month. A Mario Kart World bundle will run you $549.99, while a Switch Sports Resort bundle weighs in at $529.99. These bundles still offer relevant savings compared to standalone purchases, but that 5 up front is a reminder of the times.

Compared to PlayStation and Xbox, Nintendo has thus far kept console and accessory prices relatively low. Xbox has seen multiple price hikes in the past year and change, with a base Series X now at an eye-watering $800.

Sony CEO Hiroki Totoki said in May that another PS5 price increase isn't currently planned, but PlayStation's seen price hikes of its own, and until the market improves, I wouldn't rule out another.

Analysts predict the PS6 and Xbox Project Helix could launch at $999 given current conditions. This year, new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has repeatedly stressed that the component crunch will force consoles to confront pricing and availability more seriously. The shape and timing of the next console generation remains in flux.

The console market is dire from top to bottom. Here are the best cheap Nintendo Switch bundle deals you can still find today. And if you're wondering why so many electronics markets have collapsed, we've got a handy RAM shortage explainer for you. The short version? AI.

Time is running out to avoid the Switch 2's dreaded price hike, but that's what these bundle deals are for.

Chris Evans says it was a no-brainer to return as Steve Rogers in Avengers: Doomsday, given that he cares deeply about the role.

"I feel very at home with the role," Evans said during a panel at Fan Expo Boston. "I feel very not just comfortable, but precious. I care about the arc of all these characters, and we wouldn’t be doing it unless there was going to be a really interesting situation to put him in."

The actor is set to appear in both Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, the latter of which is out next year. You might recall that Steve Rogers received a pretty definitive ending in Avengers: Endgame, in which he declined returning to the future and went back into the past in order to have a normal family life with Peggy Carter.

The first teaser showed Rogers cradling the baby they share. The second showed him handling Thor's hammer with ease, much to the God of Thunder's disbelief. Our only real clue as to how Rogers was able to return to Earth-616 is via Loki's TVA card, which he appears to be holding in the newest trailer.

Evans previously teased that "interesting situation," saying: "The Russos love beating up Steve Rogers. Their favourite thing to do is to just beat the crap out of him. To them, that's what makes a hero, and that's someone who gets punched so many times but still gets up."

Avengers: Doomsday arrives this December 18. While you wait, check out our guide to all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows for everything else the MCU has in store.

The Blood of Dawnwalker, the new vampiric RPG from The Witcher 3 director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz and the team at Rebel Wolves, is finally releasing this week, and early reviews paint a bloody, but overall very positive, picture.

I've been following Blood of Dawnwalker very closely since its announcement and, having spoken with the devs myself and read countless encouraging hands-on previews, I'm not surprised to see it's a hit with critics now that the full review embargo has lifted. As of now, it has a mightily impressive 83 score on Metacritic, which puts it just behind beloved RPGs like The Witcher 1 and 2.

For reference, The Witcher 3 still holds a sizeable lead on all of those games with a 92 Metascore, but it's really not fair to compare any RPG to CD Projekt Red's magnum opus.

While the overall reception to Blood of Dawnwalker is positive, several high-profile outlets with lower than average reviews are noteworthy. The GamesRadar+ Blood of Dawnwalker review is one such example, giving the game 3/5 stars and noting its "odd pacing" and "repetitive" quests while praising its combat and worldbuilding.

"The Blood of Dawnwalker is a freeform vampiric RPG that does everything possible to make its unusual time-based questing feel frictionless, resulting in an adventure that's not as interesting as it feels like it should be," reads our review. "Even vampiric abilities are defanged with little in the way of moral choices. More interesting for its folkloric world, this is an historic adventure that constantly stops me from getting immersed, though I'll always love sucking blood."

Likewise, Game Rant's 6/10 review is highly complimentary of the RPG's world and story, but critical of the level of jank and, echoing our review, the repetition of activities. That repetition critique is prevalent in Game Informer's 7/10 review, which also takes off points for uneven mechanics, including the game's central "time as a resource" clock system.

Again, the broader picture is a lot more positive. Vice awarded the game a perfect 10/10 review and called it "one of the best RPGs since The Witcher 3," while IGN's 9/10 review described it as the reviewer's "new favorite vampire game and one of the best story-driven RPGs I’ve played in a long time." Destructoid agreed, giving the game a 9.5/10 review and boldly calling it "the perfect game in almost every conceivable way." GameSpot gave the game an 8/10 and lauded its "great writing" and "compelling" combat while noting technical issues and lack of distinction between vampire and human form.

Honestly, the fact that critics are somewhat split, but still largely in agreement that Blood of Dawnwalker is a quality RPG, makes me even more interested in Rebel Wolves' debut release. Although universal acclaim rarely steers me wrong, it also raises my expectations to a level that can rarely be satisfied, whereas a healthy mix of reviews to me suggests a boldness that inevitably doesn't work for everyone. All that said, there seems to be a consensus forming that Rebel Wolves built a compelling dark fantasy world with rich characters and a story that does the CDPR name justice, but perhaps with some jank and repetition that hold it back from being an instant classic.

The Blood of Dawnwalker releases September 3 for PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC.

Blood of Dawnwalker dev says you can beat the final boss right after the prologue, but it "will be a feat worthy of legends."

Huge bummer for '90s kids: the previously announced live-action TV series based on the animated urban sci-fi fantasy show Gargoyles is no longer moving ahead at Disney Plus.

"Well, I know the live-action side of it is, uh, the Atomic Monster had the license to develop a live-action Gargoyles for Disney Plus, and that's dead," creator Greg Weisman told Comics Online. "I have no idea about animation, but there are no current plans for live-action."

The kid-friendly cartoon aired on ABC from 1994-1997 and saw a group of gargoyles, who, after spending a thousand years in an enchanted petrified state, find themselves awakened in New York City and become the city's secret nighttime protectors (as they appear to be non-moving statues during the day). The impossibly large voice cast included everyone from Tim Curry and Clancy Brown, as well as Alan Cumming and Max Headroom himself, Matt Frewer.

It was announced back in 2023 that James Wan's Atomic Monster was turning the cartoon into a live-action TV series for Disney Plus. Gary Dauberman, writer of Andy Muschietti's It as well as several installments in The Conjuring franchise, was set to serve as showrunner.

Dauberman even gave an update on the series as recently as 2025, telling Collider: "We are still keeping that darkness to it. I’m excited to see the animated [series] come to life," and that Disney would "kill" him if he gave any more details.

All three seasons of Gargoyles are streaming now on Disney Plus. For more, check out our list of the best animated shows of all time.

Xbox has confirmed that Fable's main story will be around 15 to 20 hours long, exactly in keeping with the first three entries in the venerable RPG series. You can double that playtime with sidequests and exploration, and the real devotees can play "forever" if they want to treat the game as a life sim.

"We have around 15-20 hours of mainline quest gameplay, we have around 15-20 of side and open-world exploration content gameplay," associate game director Will Kennedy says at a Gamescom Q&A session, via Polygon. "And then, of course, the life systems are limitless, so you can play them for as long as you want."

"You can literally play it forever if that's what you want to do," fellow associate game director Craig Littler adds.

Personally, that sounds like the perfect length for an RPG to me – but I recognize I have a professional incentive to squeeze in as many games as I can manage. For players who invest in a small handful of games per year, the rise of RPGs like The Witcher 3, Baldur's Gate 3, and Elden Ring – whose playtimes can only be measured along astronomical scales – has fundamentally shifted expectations.

Still, the original Fable games are beloved for a reason, and part of that reason is the fact that they're breezy role-playing experiences that don't overstay their welcome. All three existing mainline Fable games are listed at around 15 hours to complete the main story on HowLongToBeat, with that time extending to 25 hours or more depending on how many side quests you want to do.

Regardless, the fact that Playground Games is confident enough in the new Fable's life simulation aspects to cite them as a reason to keep playing forever is certainly encouraging. The game promises a big, dynamic open world with loads of opportunities to get up to sandbox shenanigans, and that can go a long way toward making an RPG feel like more than the sum of its main story quests.

Fable’s combat shows a lot of promise, but I'm glad it's not launching this year.

For everyone that feels like it's been decades since we got an new, original Naughty Dog game, I come bearing great news: the studio's upcoming sci-fi adventure game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, has officially wrapped filming, marking a major development milestone.

The Uncharted and Last of Us studio shared the news in a Bluesky post featuring Tati Gabrielle, the actor behind Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet's main protagonist, Jordan A. Mun.

"'See you, space cowboy...'", reads the caption, a reference to the iconic manga and anime series Cowboy Bebop, which the game is heavily inspired by.

"That is a wrap on the very ambitious Intergalactic cinematic shoot! This cast killed it! Cannot wait to show you their incredible work when the time is right!"

"See you, space cowboy..."That is a wrap on the very ambitious Intergalactic cinematic shoot! This cast killed it! Cannot wait to show you their incredible work when the time is right!

— @naughtydog.com (@naughtydog.com.bsky.social) 2026-08-31T18:28:43.352Z

Naughty Dog has said the game, which is set to kick-start a franchise, features the studio's "wildest, most creative story yet" and has the "deepest gameplay" out of all of its games, which is quite the claim. My only reservations so far have been related to Naughty Dog's caginess about a release date or window, and while we still don't have anything like that, it's good to see an explicit marker of development progression.

The story sets bounty hunter Jordan out on a mission to capture a legendary crime syndicate, but she's stranded on the alien planet Sempiria, which is cut off from all communications from the wider galaxy. That premise alone is intriguing enough, but what I'm more interested to see is Naughty Dog's take on the sci-fi bounty hunter trope.

As a longtime Naughty Dog fan going all the way back to the Crash Bandicoot games, and as someone whose introduction to manga was none other than Cowboy Bebop, I couldn't be more excited for Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. Even if the game doesn't defy convention as much as the studio has been teasing, I have no doubt there will be a rich emotional core at its story's center.

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet "might need to be edited" to avoid "another Last of Us 2 situation," former Naughty Dog dev warns

Ridley Scott says he made the best Alien movie... and we have to hand it to him.

"I did the best [Alien] by far. Full stop. End of the fucking story," Scott told Brut. "Then they let it die. After the fourth they killed it. So I sat there thinking: 'I'm gonna bring it back.' So I sat down with very good writers and we've caught fire… and wrote Prometheus."

Alien hit theaters in 1979 and became one of the most critically and culturally important sci-fi movies of all time, and would go on to change not only the genre but the art of cinema as a whole. James Cameron taking over for the also-excellent Aliens in 1986, with David Fincher directing 1972's also-excellent Alien 3. Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie) helmed Alien: Resurrection in 1997, which became the most controversial of the franchise.

Scott resurrected the Alien franchise in 2012, with Prometheus, with follow-up Alien: Covenant hitting theaters in 2017. Alien: Romulus, directed by Fede Alvarez, arrived in 2024 and is regarded as one of the better installments of the franchise (and that's due in part to the stunning performance given by our new Black Panther David Jonsson).

The filmmaker previously told the LA Times that he was working on a direct follow-up to Covenant, which will see David, the evil, malfunctioning AI, "make a brand new world for himself."

Scott's latest release, The Dog Stars, is in theaters now. For more upcoming movies, check out our list of movie release dates.

The spice must flow, including in updates for Dune: Awakening. The Arrakis-set MMO is getting a single-player mode soon, and it'll provide more options for how much you want to get out of the experience compared to the more live-service way of playing.

At Camescom 2026, Joel Bylos, the chief creative office of developer Funcom, explained the logic to GamesRadar+. "The good thing about single-player is with the way that you can play the story and get into the story, you don't have to spend that 100 hours, right?" he says.

"You can get through the game in 50, maybe 80 hours if you change some of the settings and make it easier for yourself," he adds.

This is the thing - playing the single-player mode lets you curate the difficulty and other aspects to far greater depth than if you were partaking in the MMO side of things. Funcom handles a lot of that, because it needs to work as intended for a huge community, and there are expectations for events and the like.

"The multiplayer aspects of the game, where we built out this end game, I think people are complaining that it's a little too grindy, so we're going to work on some of that," Byblos comments. "In single-player, you can just change all of those settings yourself. So you have full control over the experience in single-player. Multiplayer, on the other hand, we control the experience a little more."

He mentions the devs are looking into updates to make it a little better for people," but to him, at least, "100 hours isn't bad" for how much people can get out of the project. That's definitely a good chunk of time, and a strong base for a game that's only been out just over a year.

Dune: Awakening has struggled a bit to retain players since launching in early access, but having more options for how people can join in should help remedy that. I know I'm more likely to get involved if I can turn off the live-service mechanics. Whether or not I get 100 hours out of it remains to be seen, all depends on how fond of the spice I become.

Dune: Awakening's players might be 80% PvE, but devs are considering ways to spice PvP up in the future with "faction versus faction" and more

Our Onimusha: Way of the Sword review is here, and so is everyone else's. So far, Onimusha's revival is on track to beat Pragmata, match Monster Hunter Stories 3, and barely trail Resident Evil Requiem in a particularly strong year for Capcom.

PS5 reviews frequently provide the biggest critical base on Metacritic, and that's true across Capcom's latest games.

Shortly after the review embargo, Onimusha: Way of the Sword is sitting at a score of 86 on Metacritic for PS5 with 66 reviews. (This is up from 59 reviews earlier this morning, and the game's critical score has not changed.)

PC is slightly lower at 82 (with 16 reviews), and Xbox and Nintendo Switch 2 currently have too few reviews to meaningfully measure. PC feedback feels particularly important, as Capcom's PC ports are hit-and-miss.

This puts Onimusha near the front of the pack of Capcom's 2026 lineup. The publisher said earlier this year that it's "not done with 2026 yet" after Resident Evil Requiem landed at 89 on Metacritic, Monster Hunter Stories 3 at 86, and new IP Pragmata at 85.

Pragmata feels especially relevant. New Monster Hunter and Resident Evil entries are reliable, and Onimusha is technically just the latest entry in a long-running, long-dormant series. Heading up Capcom's first new IP in some time, Pragmata director Yonghee Cho told GamesRadar+ that he was extraordinarily anxious about being the first one to fumble it this year. He compared Capcom's lineup to a relay race, and he didn't want Pragmata to hurt the team.

"Because those were all positively received as well," Oyama said of Capcom's 2026 hits, "[it's] not necessarily higher expectations, but we feel like we can add to that success when there's this instance where these games came out in a relatively short timeframe."

Our Onimusha: Way of the Sword review praises the game's combat and humor, but, like many other reviews I've read, is more critical of its pacing and tone. The game's out on all platforms September 4.

Capcom still has more in store for 2026, with Dragon's Dogma 2's big Dark Arisen expansion out October 8. Going into 2027, the company has already revealed Resident Evil Veronica, the series' latest remake, and Mega Man: Dual Override, the first mainline Mega Man in seven years.

Capcom made twice as much money on Steam compared to PlayStation in the last year, boosted by Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, and Devil May Cry as PC gaming continues to grow.

With the end of physical PlayStation games looming, the need for clear digital ownership rights is more pressing than ever. For its part, Sony believes your rights are very clear: you do not own your digital games, and it's unlikely you're stupid enough to believe otherwise. At least, that's roughly the argument the company's lawyers are presenting in response to a proposed class-action lawsuit.

Sony argues that its current customer-facing disclosures ensure that "reasonable consumers would not be misled" into believing they actually own their digital games. That's according to a Game File report (paid article link) citing an August 21 filing Sony's lawyers made in California's Northern District.

The publisher is responding to a proposed class action lawsuit, which alleges that Sony is violating a California law that requires digital stores to clearly explain that customers are purchasing licenses rather than actual products when they buy digital goods. The law requires a "clear and conspicuous" warning about the nature of the purchase.

Sony's terms of service and software product licensing agreement (SPLA) both clearly lay out that you "do not own the product" and "it is not sold for you to own." But those are statements buried deep within lengthy documents, so the idea that they meet that "clear and conspicuous" requirement is fairly suspect.

But from here, Sony's argument gets quite a bit weirder. "As Plaintiffs admit, Section 1 of the SPLA likewise explains that 'The Software is licensed to you, not sold,'" the filing says. "This makes sense. In the digital age, it is not plausible to allege that reasonable consumers believed they were obtaining 'ownership' of a digital game."

In other words, Sony's lawyers are arguing that if you truly own your digital games, only one copy of GTA 6 could ever be sold. "Were that the case, then Plaintiff Edward Heycock would not have been able to obtain the game Resident Evil Requiem on February 25, 2026 for $69.99 from the PlayStation Store after Plaintiff Jason Mendoza had obtained Resident Evil Requiem on February 14, 2026, because Mr. Mendoza, not Sony, would have owned it then," the filing says.

Notably, these arguments were filed just before PlayStation sent out email reminders to its customers reminding them that they don't own anything. Clearly, Sony wants to make its position on this matter clear.

Sony's terms of service also specifically bars users from taking part in class action lawsuits against the company, with disputes instead resolved by private arbitration – a process which tends to be preferable for big companies. But it's ultimately for a judge to decide whether that arbitration clause is actually binding. These arguments are part of an effort from Sony to ensure the case goes to arbitration – whether the judge agrees remains to be seen.

Industry lobbyists ridicule "false premise" that "consumers 'own' digital games" amid Stop Killing Games fight.

It's always nice to see devs revisit classic games to make spiritual successors for them, especially if the baseline mechanics and ideas have fallen out of vogue. Just recently, we saw a team doing this for Morrowind, and 14 years ago, Legend of Grimrock did this for Dungeon Master. The result is something that Path of Exile co-creator Chris Wilson is still raving about.

He made a YouTube video providing his thoughts, because Dungeon Master was a landmark release in his enjoyment of the medium. "While I'm not going to claim that it was the very first dungeon-crawler with a first-person perspective," he says. "It was the one that brought this particular style of RPG to a wide audience at the time."

You had to guide a four-character party through a dark, menacing set of tunnels, all mapped like a grid. The puzzles are largely environmental, and rely on lateral thinking based on the items you have and what you can see in the room in front of you. "It was a huge step up in terms of immersion," Wilson explains.

He goes so far as to say he found it "terrifying, in a good way," when he was younger, presumably because you were facing mummies and you had to improvise to make everything work. I can relate, because I used to find similar games, like the Heroes of Might and Magic series, daunting for similar reasons.

"But people stopped making games like this," he laments. "Once Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake came out, 90-degreerotation gave way to full 3D environments. And then Diablo 1 came along and totally changed how people saw real-time RPGs."

Since Wilson himself helped make the Diablo-like Path of Exile, you can see why he gravitated toward what Almost Human is doing in Legend of Grimrock. They're all devs who're refusing to get some aspects of the past die, even if they require traversing dimly lit dungeons.

CD Projekt Red offers to help after police reports are filed at Gamescom over stolen dev equipment: "We'll check the Arasaka hardware archives"

Rockstar North's co-studio head and head of development, Rob Nelson, has explained how and when players can switch between dual protagonists Jason and Lucia in GTA 6. He says there are some missions where you are forced to use a certain character, some where you are made to switch, and some where you can choose who to play as and change at will.

In an interview with Famitsu that's been translated by GamesRadar+, Nelson describes the team's design philosophy as it pertains to character switching and restriction. "Sometimes [switching characters] is limited by story progression," he explains.

"During the story, there are times where you can't switch from one character for some reason. There are some missions where you are free to switch as much as you want, but there are some sections where we want you to experience it from a certain character's perspective, like GTA 5, so we limit switching."

He goes on to explain how and why the devs limited players to Jason in a certain scene. "There is a mission that takes place in a high-rise apartment complex where you used to be able to switch freely between characters," Nelson says. "However, as ex-special forces, we thought it would be a more natural fit for Jason to be in control, so we decided to set the character. The mission is early in the game, so we thought it would be unnatural for Lucia to lead and give instructions as the two navigate the area."

Alternatively, he compares this to a mission where the player has to switch between Jason and Lucia. "There are some operations where you're forced to switch characters," he says. "In the trailer, we showed a mission where they left a bank robbery and drove away in a car. At first you control Jason firing at the police vehicles from inside the car, while Lucia is driving. Then, during the mission you switch characters, and this time the player is driving the car as Lucia, while Jason and Raul continue to fire at the cops from the back seat."

Finally, he explains parts where you can swap between the two characters whenever you want. "There are missions that are designed in this way, then, like the mission at the end of the trailer where they are under attack, there are times when you can freely alternate switching between Jason and Lucia," Nelson explains.

After 13 years, GTA 6's gameplay deep dive has been so worth the wait even my 76-year-old mother has been texting me about it

The Last Photograph, Zack Snyder's passion project of over 20 years, is set to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Per Deadline, The Last Photograph is set to make its world debut at TIFF on September 16. The movie stars Rebel Moon actor Stuart Martin as an ex-DEA operative who must search the South American mountains for his missing niece and nephew after their parents are murdered. He enlists the help of a war photographer (Fra Fee), who witnessed the slayings, and the two embark on a journey that blurs the line between reality and the surreal.

Snyder directs from a screenplay penned by longtime collaborator Kurt Johnstad, based on an original story by Snyder. The cast includes Jackie Kay, Sergio Herrera, Marlon Moreno, Costanza Andrade, Gustavo Angarita Jr., and Carolina Henao.

"The idea of taking a camera in hand and simply making a movie in an intimate way is very appealing to me,” Snyder told Deadline when the project was announced. "The Last Photograph is a meditation of life and death, embodying some of the trials that I have experienced in my own life and the exploration of those ideas through image making."

Though Snyder's Norse mythology adult animated series Twilight of the Gods, and the untitled LAPD SWAT movie were both cancelled at Netflix last year, the filmmaker is set to direct the long-awaited remake of Escape From New York. A TV series based on 300, Snyder's 2006 epic historical action movie, is also still in the works.

Escape from New York does not yet have a release date. For more, check out our list of all the exciting upcoming movies in 2026 and beyond.

Rockstar has just released a massive pile of new GTA 6 screenshots, and even after seeing nearly 30 minutes of 4K gameplay last week, there are a few new details to pick apart in these stills. Sure, there are displays of cars, weapons, locations, and sick outfits for Jason and Lucia, but I keep coming back to this one picture of an iguana.

Seriously, if the image above does not fully communicate why I'm looking at this iguana so intensely, go check out the 4K original on Rockstar's official website. Zoom in, and start counting scales. Every single scale on this little (big) guy is fully visible, in sharp detail, from head to tail.

Of course, Rockstar is already known for ridiculously detailed animals, as Red Dead Redemption 2's horses are famously some of the most lovingly rendered creatures in gaming, right down to testicles that grow and shrink depending on the temperature. But that's a cowboy game – one where horses are central to the experience, as are all kinds of other little varmints you've gotta track, hunt, or avoid.

It wouldn't be out of pocket for us to see an iguana model this detailed if, say, this were a AAA game about keeping iguanas as pets. But this is a game about stealing cars and robbing banks. You'll probably look at one of these iguanas for a couple of seconds, tops. Rockstar might be the only studio in the world willing – and more importantly, able – to invest its resources into such minute details.

Maybe the iguana we're seeing here is a hero model that'll be front-and-center for a brief establishing shot in a cutscene or something. But there's still no reason for it to look this good. Other than, of course, Rockstar's desire to absolutely dazzle us with an uber-detailed sandbox.

GTA 6 became too realistic for even Rockstar so the devs had to cut a system for restocking Jason and Lucia's fridge to "find the right balance between realism and ease of play."

You probably don't need to be told that GTA 6 is big. Rockstar sandboxes are known for their size and depth, and this one seems like it'll be the biggest of the bunch by a wide margin. So much so, the studio doesn't think a single member of the team has seen every corner of Leonida.

Chatting about the blockbuster release with IGN, Rob Nelson, the head of development and co-studio head at Rockstar, spoke about the philosophy underpinning the map and all the various things you can do. "I think the challenge for us on this game is the same as it is on any new game for us," he explains.

"How do we evolve and build upon the good things we have done before in all the ways these things need to evolve," he adds, "but at the same time ensure that the game still has everything that made the previous games in this series resonate with people?"

That's a tricky thing to do. No doubt Rockstar wants GTA 6 to feel fresh and contemporary, without completely eschewing the ideas that have carried the series this far. Chaos, comedy, and constant pull to explore are hallmarks of the franchise, and have been since the very first entry.

That last part is key, and the team appears to have spent the 13 years since GTA 5 well in terms of providing us with things to do. "The game is so big, I don’t know that there’s anybody on the team that knows all of it," Nelson says.

Normally I'd balk at such a statement, but he's likely correct in this instance. Leonida seems big, and between just getting around and all the side-quests, I've little doubt there's an ungodly amount to see and do, to the point that it'll take hundreds to uncover all of it. And it all kicks off in November - at long last.

GTA 6 became too realistic for even Rockstar so the devs had to cut a system for restocking Jason and Lucia's fridge to "find the right balance between realism and ease of play"

Multiple game developers reported having equipment stolen from Gamescom 2026 booths or stations. Mimic developer Ryan Laley said on Friday that "all our laptops have been stolen," ending his team's event presence early. Amidst the wave of support his message sparked, Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3 developer CD Projekt Red reached out to hopefully help replace the lost hardware.

"We are very sorry this happened to you," a reply from the Cyberpunk 2077 Twitter account reads. "We hope you know you're not on your own with this. And while it won't help right this second, we'll check the Arasaka hardware archives and see if we can send a few things your way. No choom should have to start from zero."

"Wow thank you so much!" Laley replied.

The official account for Where Winds Meet, a wuxia action RPG from Everstone Studios and Netease Games, also offered support: "We're so sorry this happened to you. We hope you know you're not on your own. Wanderers are here to help. We'll stop by your booth tomorrow with what we can and do our part to help get you back in the game."

At least three teams have reported stolen Gamescom equipment this year. One impacted team, Ukiyo Studios, said on Sunday, "We had an Xbox controller, drinks and food stolen from our booth today. The drinks and food were stolen overnight, and the controller was taken around 18:50. This makes it 4 years straight of things being stolen. This is the cost of doing business in Gamescom."

In a post sharing Laley's video message, Ukiyo Studios added, "Two years ago we had a PC stolen from our Gamescom booth, and when we tried filing a police report, a person from Gamescom blocked us from doing so, saying 'it makes Gamescom and the city of Cologne look bad.'"

Gamescom organizers have now addressed the latest robberies. In an August 29 statement, the event's official account said, "We are aware of stolen hardware and take these reports very seriously and understand the frustration of affected exhibitors."

According to Gamescom itself, "uniformed guards provide general security across the venue. Individual stand security can be booked separately, and exhibitors are advised to insure equipment against theft."

Many people read this as passing the buck. This response quickly prompted a community note adding context. This note points out that "multiple exhibitors reported laptops stolen overnight from restricted business and indie area booths despite purported 24/7 general security."

Laley said "police reports have been filed," and Gamescom affirms "all cases have been reported to us and to the police, and investigations are already underway."

Everything announced at Gamescom Opening Night Live 2026.

Progression that's too slow can make any game feel plodding, especially action-RPGs. The devs behind Stupid Never Dies, a flashy, zombie-themed take on the genre, specifically made stat increases extremely quick to avoid such a pratfall.

"Usually action-RPGs take like maybe 30-to-40 hours to finish all the progression and beat the final boss," Eiichiro Sasaki, the director of Stupid Never Dies, told GamesRadar+ through a translator at Gamescom 2026.

"But in this game, conceptually, what we wanted to do was to bring that progression into more condensed time," he continues. "Let's say 15, 20 minutes of each dungeon dive, you feel something, you feel the progression."

That's a much shorter window of time. The game is advertised as having "blazing fast growth," and 20-minute bursts that are consistently punching up your abilities would be in line with that.

For me, there's potential here to go too far the other way, where the adrenaline of playing fast runs out relatively quickly. But that's where the acumen of the studio GPTRACK50 comes in. Sasaki himself directed Resident Evil 6 and worked on the Outbreak games, while the company's founder, Hiroyuki Kobayashi, helped make the OG Devil May Cry and a bunch of other fine-tuned releases, including the underrated P.N.03.

These devs know what they're doing when it comes to pacing. The central conceit of Stupid Never Dies is lead character Davy is undead, and he has to defeat waves of monsters to get stronger. It's bright, and loud, and very much my thing.

Sasaki considers Stupid Never Dies "totally new as an idea," and he believes the team "are successfully able to deliver" this higher-octane progression well. We'll find out when Stupid Never Dies comes out on October 21.

Stellar Blade and Lies of P "really made developers in Korea take up the challenge for console games," says Shift Up technical director.

Stellar Blade and Lies of P impacted the Korean games industry in much the same way that Black Myth: Wukong hit China, reckons Shift Up technical director Dong-ki Lee.

Speaking with GamesRadar+ at Gamescom 2026, Lee, hot on the heels of the Stellar Blade: Blood Rain reveal, examines the impact of Stellar Blade and its success.

"Games like ours, and also Lies of P, those kinds of games came out in Korea and that really made developers in Korea go take up the challenge for console games more," Lee reasons. "And we have Crimson Desert now as well, so they're having all this influence on each other, so that's really good."

Lies of P is often called the best Soulslike produced outside of FromSoftware headquarters, and Crimson Desert is one of the biggest games of 2026. Stellar Blade sold millions of copies and, like Lies of P, is due for a sequel. It's also encouraged Shift Up to take on more ambitious projects like fellow "AAA-class" game Project Spirits, due to be revealed this year.

Like China, whose games industry has seen paradigm shifts in the shadow of (primarily) Genshin Impact and Black Myth: Wukong, games like Stellar Blade have made a strong case for core console and PC games in spaces long dominated by mobile and online games. Crimson Desert, a full-fat successor to the MMO Black Desert, is a perfect example. Sequel Black Myth: Zhong Kui, meanwhile, recently dropped a promising demo.

To this day, Shift Up also maintains Goddess of Victory: Nikke, a famously sexy mobile game and a key breadwinner for the studio. I've been covering games for 13 years, and when I think about the next 10 years of games, PC gaming, China, and Korea are among the first trends that come to mind.

The Nintendo Switch 2 is also important to Shift Up, Lee says, as it's another major platform and another home for Stellar Blade. With its upcoming port, Lee says "all the skills and knowhow gained from developing for PlayStation 5 and PC, we wanted to now showcase that on Switch 2. I personally really enjoyed The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. That was one of my favorite games, so I'm really happy to be able to showcase Stellar Blade on the Switch 2."

As it happens, the Switch 2 edition of Stellar Blade will be publicly playable for the first time at Tokyo Game Show 2026 this September. Stellar Blade got one of the best PC ports in ages, so there are high hopes for this port.

"There is a limit to progress based on price": In today's AI hardware disaster, Stellar Blade Blood Rain devs prioritize "making the game playable" for as many people as possible.

A new PlayStation State of Play is airing this week, it's been confirmed, and there's some great news for fans eager to see more of Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, because that's exactly what you're getting.

In a PlayStation Blog post shared today, it's revealed that State of Play will return this Thursday, September 3, at 6am PT / 9am ET / 2pm BST. From this, we can expect "updates and announcements from PlayStation Studios and our third-party partners, concluding with an extended look at the vast world of Final Fantasy 7 Revelation from our friends at Square Enix."

After that, we can get ready for a State of Play Japan stream, with "deep dives into upcoming games from game studios in Japan and Asia, including new gameplay, announcements, and more."

It's not been stated how long we can expect these broadcasts to be, although I'm curious about their timing – they're taking place much sooner in the day for those in the US and Europe than State of Play streams usually do (not that I'm complaining, as a UK dweller).

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation being the headliner is no huge surprise either, given that it's set to launch at some point early next year. Otherwise, we've been given no massive indication what games could be set to make appearances – Marvel's Wolverine wouldn't be too surprising given that it's set to launch on September 15, but I'm curious if we could see anything of Naughty Dog's mysterious Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet as we approach two years since its reveal at the 2024 Game Awards.

For now, we'll just have to be patient – there's not long to wait.

Be sure to check out our list of upcoming PS5 games to see what else is on the horizon.

GTA 6 isn't the only upcoming video game that has suffered from extreme leakage in 2026. While the spotlight is undoubtedly on Rockstar Games right now – the publisher has thus far been unable to stop a hacker from revealing aspects of an old build to the public without authorization – it's worth remembering that 4A Games went through something similar earlier this year.

Shortly before Metro 2039 was revealed to the world, a bold return to the Moscow Metro system, a playable build of a canceled Metro game found its way onto the internet. While the source remains unclear, the leak put a lot of 4A's early work on a sequel to Metro Exodus out into the public sphere.

Speaking with Jon Bloch, the executive producer of Metro 2039 says that seeing work never intended to be seen by the world is a "strange" feeling that he'd rather not see repeated. "It never feels good. It can be frustrating to see."

The canceled Metro game shows that 4A once had a very different vision for how it would follow Exodus. The leaked material suggested that the studio was exploring a full open-world space, had aligned a story featuring differing protagonists, and a wildly different approach to customization and survival.

Work on this Metro sequel was abandoned in 2022, and the project was ultimately rebooted. 4A has explained that the Russian invasion of Ukraine (where the studio and much of its staff originated) necessitated a change in creative direction, and inspired the studio to tell a different type of story – Metro 2039 is the result of that work.

Still, Bloch assures me that seeing community reaction to work it once had in progress hasn't impacted development or the direction of Metro 2039, as frustrating as the leaks may have been. "I wouldn't say that it's affected the work that we're putting into what we're doing now. I mean, it's out there. It happened. There's nothing we can do about it. It sucks, but it could be worse. There's a lot of other things, frankly, that have gone on during the development of this game that I think are much worse."

The war in Ukraine has had an unimaginable impact on the people working to bring Metro 2039 to life. It's impossible to truly understand the strain the 4A Games team – working primarily out of its headquarters in Kyiv and a support studio in Malta – has been under over the past four years. In fact, having played the game myself, I find the quality of Metro 2039 undeniably astonishing.

Metro Exodus released in 2019 and Bloch admits that 4A "didn't set out for this game to take seven years" to create, but he does acknowledge that players will certainly see a benefit in the final product of Metro 2039. "We're benefiting from that time on the technology side, the gameplay side, and the feature side," he says. "The story had to be redone, and we did have to move on from some other location ideas that had fed the story we were working on before. But we tried to save as much of what had already been built as we could, and changed elements to meet the new story."

Bloch says that, ultimately, while a sequel to Metro Exodus may have been rebooted, the Metro 2039 you'll experience come February 2027 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X will ultimately have benefited from the "continued development, iteration, and polish" that was maintained across the entire process. And if what I've played so far is any indication, it's clear that 4A has something truly special on its hands.

Metro 2039 is a "journey back into Hell" and darker than you've ever seen the series: "You're in a completely different system"

Blue Dragon – Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi's first RPG after leaving Square Enix – is finally free from the Xbox 360 thanks to a fanmade PC port.

Last year, a fanmade PC port of Sonic Unleashed helped open the floodgates for native PC versions of Xbox 360 games by using the new tool XenonRecomp. And while I'd mostly hoped the tool would be used for a WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007 port (which, shockingly, actually happened), I imagine others were eager to get two of the Xbox 360's biggest RPGs made by the creator of Final Fantasy – Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon, both of which Sakaguchi said he wasn't really keen on bringing to modern platforms.

Sakaguchi left Square in 2001 following the box office bomb that was Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, and in 2006 he emerged with his first new RPG, Blue Dragon. Not only was this game a reunion between Sakaguchi and Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu, but also, it enlisted another RPG legend in Dragon Quest artist and Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama. This classic can now finally be played on PC.

As spotted by PC Gamer, re:Blue is a fan-made PC port of Blue Dragon released earlier this month, and it allows anyone who owns the original Xbox 360 game (which is currently still available on the Xbox Store) to dump their files and play an enhanced version on PC. The port features support for multiple aspect ratios, 4K visuals, keyboard and mouse support, and the ability to play the game at up to 120fps. Plus, re:Blue gives you access to in-game achievements, including new ones added specifically for the port.

So while Blue Dragon has technically been available through backwards compatibility on Xbox consoles for 20 years, I'm glad more people will now have a chance to play one of the Xbox 360's earliest crown jewels with the PC port the game has always deserved. It's a piece of Final Fantasy history. Let's get to Lost Odyssey next, thanks.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation director promises to "go even deeper" into Vincent's backstory since the JRPG's goth icon has been a mystery for 30 years.

Joel Bylos, CCO at Funcom, has revealed Dune: Awakening devs are looking into ways to make its PvP more engaging, even as most of its community prefers PvE.

GamesRadar+ spoke to Bylos at Gamescom 2026 and asked about PvP in Dune: Awakening being somewhat optional, and whether that works too much in favor of PvE-focused players at the expense of those who are interested in PvP. Creative director Bylos responded, "I think that probably was the issue with the game at launch, was that we were trying to do too much for too many people."

He explains, "We were mixing two types of players together who didn't want to be mixed together," adding that he thinks "PvP players and PvE players don't really want to play together, and when they do, the PvP players are sharks in a fish tank, you know, really enjoying themselves."

However, those PvP-focused players are a minority in the Dune: Awakening community, as Bylos says devs discovered that, "metrics-wise, 80% of our players were PvE, and not PvPers. So we've decided to focus more on that audience."

However, even with a higher focus on PvE and the single-player mode coming alongside Dune: Awakening's console launch next month, Funcom is not completely abandoning PvP players. Bylos notes, "We will look into doing more structured PvP things in the future," and that when the console launch is in the past, "we'll have more time to look and actually think about carefully about the kind of features we're doing." Bylos specifically notes that "faction versus faction" PvP is "something on my mind."

Dune: Awakening's new single-player mode fits perfectly in the MMO because of its strong story, lead says: "I think we have the best story in a survival game that exists."

Metal Gear Solid 4's new re-release in Master Collection Vol.2 appears to reference a fan-made Metal Gear Online project in its files, suggesting Konami relied on the project for DLC.

Back in the days of the Xbox 360 and PS3, it felt like every game had a multiplayer mode, even if it didn't need it. Nonetheless, this trend resulted in some shockingly great multiplayer experiences like Naughty Dog's Uncharted and The Last of Us online modes, Capcom's forgotten Bionic Commando reboot, and Bioshock 2.

Then, though Metal Gear Online debuted with Metal Gear Solid 3 Subsistence on the PS2, it took the Metal Gear Online 2 featured in Metal Gear Solid 4 to make the series' multiplayer a legendary experience. That brings us to the SaveMGO project, which allows players to play Metal Gear multiplayer to this very day.

Officially, Metal Gear Online went offline in 2012. However, SaveMGO has played a vital role in Metal Gear Solid 4's enduring appeal.

Now, it seems like Konami is acknowledging fan efforts. The SaveMGO Twitter account (via Time Extension) recently shared SaveMGO member Marko's reaction to a post in the Discord community for the project, in which someone shares references to SaveMGO in Metal Gear Solid 4's new port files.

The working theory among fans is that Konami used SaveMGO to access some of the now-deleted DLC for the game which consisted of camouflage patterns for Snake. Marko says, "That is awesome! So the only way they could get that stuff is thanks to the preservation potential of SaveMGO." SaveMGO says in its own tweet, "The original DLC might only exist today because SaveMGO kept it available all these years," adding that the team is "feeling proud."

While it wouldn't be the end of the world if DLC camo were missing from Metal Gear Solid 4, Konami's possible reliance on SaveMGO proves the importance of preservation, and more specifically, fan-made preservation projects. Because it's fantastic that I can still use cool Metal Gear Solid 4 camo, but it's even better that I can still play Metal Gear Online almost a decade-and-a-half since the servers shut.

91.8% of Metal Gear Solid 4 players immediately got the achievement for ripping a statue's privates clean off.

Apple TV action-comedy Mayday stars Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh as a mismatched American and Russian odd couple, but you might be surprised by which one of them lets their fists do the talking.

Despite Reynolds semi-regularly suiting up as the dual-katana-wielding Deadpool, it's Branagh's former KGB agent who's the far more adept fighter in Mayday. And according to the movie's directors, Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, the 65-year-old Branagh wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty when it came to the action, or the comedy.

"He was super hands-on," says Daley during a conversation with GamesRadar+ at San Diego Comic-Con 2026 to discuss Branagh's Liam Neeson-style action man makeover. "He did a lot of the rehearsals with our stunt coordinators. He did a lot of his own stunts, and just like he approaches everything, he had deep reverence and deep respect for the material, and was able to put a level of emphasis into all of it that we were so lucky to have."

In Mayday, Reynolds US Air Force pilot Troy "Assassin" Kelly crash-lands behind enemy lines in Russia, and is saved from a life sentence in a gulag by Branagh's Nikolai Ustinov, who happens to be obsessed with American pop culture, like McDonald's and Top Gun. Kelly is a very wanted man, however, so when push comes to shove, it's Ustinov who does the pushing. And the shoving. And the head-smashing.

Branagh's wannabe-defector is also a deadpan delight, landing laughs alongside blows. Mayday, then, is something of a change of pace for the typically affable Branagh, who more than holds his own opposite wisecracking motormouth Reynolds on the comedy front.

"We're big fans of casting the greatest actors we can get, whether they're drama or comedy people, like Jesse Plemons in Game Night," Goldstein says. "We just ask them to commit to it like you would a drama, and it turns out to be hilarious. And Ken just brought so much great chops to the thing."

"There's this weird misconception that dramatic actors have trouble doing comedy," Daley adds. "And I couldn't disagree more with that. I feel like dramatic actors, as long as they play it like a drama, are the funniest."

The inverse is also true. Goldstein and Daley could be pigeonholed as comedy filmmakers following the warmly received likes of Vacation, Game Night and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. But Mayday features some impressively muscular action, including a car chase involving a nuclear missile truck that was filmed for real in Budapest.

"That was very complicated," Goldstein says with a nervous laugh. "We needed a lot of the participation and help from the good people of Budapest, where we filmed for Moscow. We had over 1000 extras. We had real Soviet tanks. We had an actual ICBM launch vehicle with a fake missile on top of it. I mean, we went through that whole city. Used the airport. It was a big production."

Goldstein and Daley are currently hard at work on a Star Trek movie, and recently revealed they wrote a Dungeons and Dragons sequel that might never be made. As for Branagh, it's not too late to give him his own action franchise. Nikolai Wick, anyone?

Mayday releases on Apple TV on September 4. For more, check out our list of the best Apple TV movies, or fill out your watchlist with our guide to the upcoming movies heading your way.

Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone has shared an update on his upcoming chocolatier sim Haunted Chocolatier as we approach the fifth anniversary of its announcement: the game is still happening.

Now that Hollow Knight: Silksong and Mewgenics are out, the gaming community needs a new indie that's taking ages to launch to rally around. For me, that's Little Devil Inside (which was originally announced for the Wii U, to tell you how long that's been), but I imagine there's a whole lot of people who have been desperately waiting for the next game from Stardew Valley developer Barone instead. His upcoming Haunted Chocolatier was announced all the way back in 2021.

To his credit, Barone has been way more open about the development of Haunted Chocolatier than the Silksong devs were or Little Devil Inside devs are. He's well aware that Haunted Chocolatier is "taking a long time," but he's now shared a new update on the game's development through the Haunted Chocolatier website.

"I'm still here, still making progress," Barone says, thanking the fanbase for waiting patiently, and apologizing for how long development is taking. He adds, "I've been very productive on this project lately even though I am busy with many things. Working on Haunted Chocolatier is what I'm most eager and driven to do, out of everything."

However, despite his apologies about the development time, Barone isn't stressed about it, as, "That's just how it is" He explains, "I won't compromise on the quality of the game by rushing it or releasing it too early. Then all my time would be wasted, anyway." Barone also notes that the community is supportive, adding that "I do appreciate how understanding you guys are."

"My goal is to make a game that I am proud of and personally enjoy. And I am certain, at this point, that I will enjoy the game when it is finished," Barone says. "I already enjoy playing it in its unfinished state, especially after some recent additions i made… I hope others will like it too when it’s ready."

Given that Stardew Valley has become one of the most beloved games of all time, and it has been consistently been updated alongside the development of Haunted Chocolatier, I reckon we let Barone cook – because he's right, it'd be a waste to rush the process.

Haunted Chocolatier is "way bigger than Stardew Valley," says ConcernedApe: "Everything is cranked up."

Lego produces enough kits each month that its release schedule is eclectic at the best of times, but the best new Lego sets in September 2026 are enough to give me whiplash. A pineapple house under the sea sits alongside a magical model that laughs in the face of physics, followed by a one of cinema's most iconic cars... which isn't what it seems. Captain Kirk, Gremlins, and Doctor Doom follow close behind, because of course they do. (It's like the start of a really bad "...walked into a bar" joke, isn't it?)

In short, there's a lot going on - and I'm here to break down the very best new Lego sets in September 2026 so you know what to prioritize. You'll find my top picks below, and I've selected the ones I think are most interesting based on my years covering the best Lego sets. Want the bigger picture instead? No problem. You'll find every single model releasing this month further down the page.

There's certainly a lot to take in. Besides Star Trek, Batman, and Spongebob Squarepants, Lego's also releasing its advent calendar range in September. If you want to secure one ahead of the holiday season, it's worth jumping in early; some of the most popular ones sell out long before December.

Naturally, we aren't just getting three new Lego sets in September 2026; 17 kits are hitting the shelves. I've listed each and every one below, providing a better overview of what's on the way. With the exception of the Batmobile, each kit will arrive on September 1.

BrickHeadz

DC

Editions

Harry Potter

Icons

Marvel

Minifigures

Other

It's been a busy few weeks for Lego; besides a new Lego Star Wars kit that is the longest set ever made, it revealed the first Lego Super Mario minifigures.

• See all the latest Lego sets at Lego

GTA 6 had even more daily-life role-playing features, like buying groceries to restock your fridge, reveals Rockstar North co-studio head and head of development Rob Nelson, but the team decided to scrap the idea so as not to overcomplicate the game's mechanics.

In an interview with Famitsu that's been translated by GamesRadar+, Nelson discusses a feature the team planned but eventually cut: dual protagonists Jason and Lucia could buy groceries at the supermarket and then restock their fridge.

"At one point during development, we were experimenting with a system that would allow you to buy groceries to restock the fridge," he says. "We had specifications for stores with groceries that you could buy and take home, and the fridge could be replenished. However, because this would have complicated the mechanics, we had to simplify it."

This would have likely been part of the GTA 6 system that allows you to gain weight, with your body, health, and stamina changing depending on how you eat and exercise. However, it appears the team thought shopping for groceries was a step too far, and opted instead for cleaner gameplay.

"We are always trying to find the right balance between realism and ease of play," Nelson explains. "Rather than just going to the fridge to grab a snack or visiting a restaurant just to roleplay, we want to give meaning to each action."

Seems living our TikTok ASMR restock fantasy is one of the only things we won't be able to do in GTA 6.

GTA 6 wanted system goes up to 6 stars and lets police track your face, your clothes, and your car

A massive archive of games and unreleased builds uploaded to Steam from 2003 to 2013 has leaked online, and it includes never-before-seen versions of Portal 2 and many other games, alongside materials that could be related to the Half-Life 2: Episode Three that never saw the light of day.

The 12TB leak was spotted by GabeFollower earlier this week, who says it features "internal builds and game assets" that stretch over the course of a decade. The materials include in-development builds of classic Valve games - Portal 2, Left 4 Dead, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive - alongside materials related to unreleased games, such as the Portal prequel called F-Stop and "potentially" information on Half-Life 2: Episode Three.

The Steam Terraleak doesn't seem to have been the result of a hacker, but Valve's now-retired content-delivery pipeline that was replaced more than a decade ago. "There has been no hacking. This is 100% Valve's fault," YouTuber Scolcer tweets online. "The Steam Teraleak was obtained from a site that was 100% accessible to the public. It was there for everyone to download. No passwords. Nothing. Hidden in plain sight, but with no protection whatsoever."

Different Portal 2 builds have already surfaced, showing off levels and gameplay ideas that never made it into the final game. Notably, a 'bullet time' mechanic that slowed down time mid-air seems to have been scrapped sometime before release.

Since the huge Valve leak contains almost everything uploaded to Steam over a decade, it's said that a large amount of third-party content is also floating around. Games made outside of Valve's offices could be similarly affected, then. Aesthetic Gamer tweets that beta builds for Alan Wake, Sonic 4, American McGee's Alive, and Fallout New Vegas could be part of the files. Pre-release content related to Dragon Age: Origins and Batman: Arkham Asylum might also be kicking around.

GabeFollower does mention that it will take days, at least, for fans to comb through the entire 12TB of information. We probably won't get a full picture of everything hiding in these Steam leaks for a while, so don't get too excited about the prospect of Half-Life 3 news just yet.

"This has been the most humiliating and surreal experience in 20+ years of game making": Dev pleads with Valve as Steam brands his PEGI 12 game as pornography

What would Pokemon look like if the series borrowed from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's combat system? The question is so unlikely that it wouldn't usually be worth dwelling on, but it is today, because one fan has created a gorgeous proof of concept video.

Earlier this week, BelmontesArt posted a clip to their YouTube channel with a self-explanatory title: "What if Pokémon had the Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 battle system?" What follows is a minute-long, fan-made animation showing Decidueye, Charizard, and Greninja battling against Ultra Necrozma, complete with the Clair Obscur-isms you'd expect.

There are timing-based prompts for parrying and blocking attacks, HUD elements that pop in and out of view, a dynamic camera that zooms and sways for maximum dramatic effect, and a turn order stuck to the side of the screen. But our battle-tested Pokemon mechanics aren't forgotten about either - moves can be super effective, and Charizards X/Y Mega Evolutions are actually snuggly mapped to the X and Y buttons. Chef's kiss.

"I really like how cinematic the gameplay of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 looks, so I thought it might be a cool experiment to mix it with Pokémon," BelmontesArt wrote in the video's description. The animation was apparently made in Blender using modified character models and sound effects ripped straight from Pokemon and Clair Obscur.

While it's unlikely we'll ever see The Pokemon Company so directly pull from the parry-forward combat of Sandfall Interactive's GOTY-winning hit, there's clearly a ton of interest in the concept. The fan animation was viewed over 400,000 times on YouTube in less than a week, and it travelled just as far across multiple social media channels, too.

Next up is Pokemon Winds and Waves, coming sometime in 2027. A series lead developer recently hinted that its combat system "could change" after Pokemon Champions' release, so who knows? Perhaps Pokemon: Expedition 33 isn't such a far off fever dream.

New Pokemon series from Wallace and Gromit animation studio Aardman is coming exclusively to Disney Plus, alongside Ash's first anime run

What made the original Fallout RPG so great wasn't just its dark humor or apocalyptic setting or branching choices, according to co-creator Tim Cain. What made Fallout great was actually how it was made.

Part of the team responsible for the original Fallout - and now part of Obsidian Entertainment, a studio working on an all-new Fallout game - Tim Cain recently spoke about an aspect of the series' creation that often goes "overlooked" by many developers and fans alike nowadays.

In a new vlog posted to his YouTube channel, Cain brings up something called the Abilene paradox, which refers to how a group of people might refuse to push back on a bad idea because they're afraid to rock the boat. Maybe you're too shy to say you don't want to eat at a restaurant you know is crappy, just because everyone else seems excited about it.

"That happens all the time in video game development," Cain says, but instead of submitting to a crappy restaurant, developers might go along with a not-so-great feature for a game. "Too many people think that discussion is argument, and discussion is not argument."

The famed game dev mentions how he's worked with people who want to be told what to do, rather than having deep discussions. "If you treat discussion as argument then ideas will never be questioned much less really tested," he explains. "And, so, your game will go out with a bunch of things that somebody thought should go in. No one ever pushed back on it. Nobody ever implemented it, tested it, and went, 'No, that's not very good. We should change that.'" He's also seen the same pattern in publishers and fans in online forums, too.

"So, this gets back to why I think Fallout was a great game," he goes on. "Fallout was great because we pushed each other during development and we pushed each other pretty hard. We asked ourselves difficult questions about what we were doing. Should that creature look like that? Should that character talk like that? Should that map be that size? We questioned ideas. We would discuss them. We would defend them. And we would offer better ones... This is something that's kind of overlooked, I think, in development now."

There aren't yet many details available about Obsidian's Fallout game, but it's reportedly being directed by New Vegas lead Josh Sawyer. Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas remasters might not be enough to fill the wait to Fallout 5, however.

Fallout 4 fans let out as a sigh of relief as Bethesda quadruples the RPG's mod limit without breaking everything in new update

After more than a decade steering the blood-soaked franchise, Gears of War: E-Day developer The Coalition wants to be recognized creatively for all of the things that made Gears become the cover shooter poster child two generations ago: really tight action, hefty weapons, and being best-in-class at "tearing monsters apart."

It's been almost 20 years since Gears of War first chainsaw-gunned its way to the surface and over 10 years since The Coalition took over the franchise from Epic Games. But the series' stewards are still committed to delivering on what the series does best.

Speaking to GamesRadar+ at Gamescom 2026, creative director Matt Searcy says "we really wanted to be known for what Gears already is." To him, Gears has always been "one of the probably best-in-class at cover shooting" thanks in large part to its "unabashed sort of tearing monsters apart."

"Ultimately, we base it around the [...] the pillars that made the original games great. What if we just built a modern game, a new engine from scratch around those pillars? And so, the short answer to your question, what do we want to creatively be known for? It's all the things that made Gears resonate in the first place," Searcy adds.

While trying to recapture the series' signature knack for monster-crushing action, the developers still wanted "the game to feel new," but Searcy says the team approached the challenge "by looking at ourselves and not looking outside at other franchises." The Xbox studio recently rejected the aggressive monetization of modern shooters, for example, and promised to return to the "good ol' days."

"Gears is one of those franchises that's always pushed the boundaries of visual [and] hardware, and I think [The Coalition] team shares a lot of that pedigree with Epic from from the past," brand director Nicole Fawcette adds, explaining that the studio is full of developers who have "truly hit their stride in this game and in their career, and it shows up on screen."

"Like, it's just a team that like strives to do their best with a franchise they love," she says. "Everybody [is] giving their absolute f*****g balls, every effort that they can to to bring it to life, and I think it shows."

Gears of War: E-Day comes out on October 6 for PC and Xbox Series X|S.

We played Gears of War: E-Day's campaign, and it's even bleaker than we expected.

People were concerned about the quality of GTA 6's gameplay before the Netflix extended look, given the limited footage previously released. Now that those fears have been quashed, head of development and co-lead of Rockstar North Rob Nelson wants the next biggest concern, another release date delay, to be squashed as well.

In an interview with Famitsu that's been translated by GamesRadar+, the interviewer discusses how they no longer have concerns about the game's quality after watching the GTA 6 extended look that premiered on Netflix. However, the one thing they were still concerned about was whether the game would be released in November.

GTA 6 has seen two release date delays. The first was from 2025 to 2026, and the second GTA 6 delay moved the launch date six months from May 26 to November 19. However, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has remained firm on the November release date, reiterating his confidence in multiple interviews.

Nelson has now added his voice to the choir, certain that GTA 6 will come out in November. "It was our hope that people wouldn't be worried about the quality [after watching the extended look]," he says. "We're really pleased. Also, it will be released on time."

As it's expected to be the biggest game of all time, there is a lot of pressure weighing down on GTA 6 and Rockstar's shoulders. It seems that the studio is firm on its promise that we'll be able to dive into Vice City come November.

GTA 6 doesn't feature microtransactions or AI, Rockstar says, but I doubt its take on GTA Online won't have Shark Cards

The Metro series has traditionally deployed a pretty interesting system to help determine which ending scenes you ultimately receive. In Metro 2033, Last Light, and Exodus, Artyom would be awarded 'Karma Points' for actively and passively undertaking different actions – this is largely hidden away from the player, operating quietly in the background to help encourage you to better understand the Metro, its people, and the strange phenomenon hanging over it.

Metro 2039 is bringing players back to the Metro system after Exodus steered us into the wilderness beyond Moscow. There's a new protagonist, the Stranger, an exile returning to a world that's now under the rule of one centralized faction – the fascistic Novoreich.

This new frame means that 4A Games is changing the way that we see and perceive the world. "If you look at our previous games, they're dealing with preventing war in their themes – and in the morality of the player's actions, choices, and the story around them," says Jon Bloch, executive producer.

"Where there was kind of a moral grayness in our previous games, we wanted to make sure that the morality was clear in Metro 2039. There is no hope, no future – except the one the Führer is promising to bring in," he adds. "Metro 2039 is exploring the consequences of war, because war is here."

I wondered whether this change in how morality is viewed would also affect how 4A handles Karma. Bloch assures me that the system is alive and well for this descent into a more hellish Metro system, but there will be some changes to how it functions.

"Every game has had a different way of approaching the same idea of a karma system, and Metro 2039 is no different. The same idea of actions having consequences, that remains. We're just approaching it a little bit differently this time. We have to every time because it needs to serve the story."

Bloch won't be drawn on how the system will be interpreted in Metro 2039, or which actions will ultimately affect the Stranger's Karma in both positive and negative ways. I can say from my time with the game that it didn't appear to indicate when Karma Points were received with any type of colored HUD hue, as in Metro 2033 and Last Light – and that's despite me doing the best that I could to listen in on every conversation that I could, explore every corner of the overworld, find every abandoned stalker nest and frozen story, and dispatch human antagonists with non-lethal takedowns.

Still, with the Karma system making a return for a far darker, more hostile world – one where the Stranger is on a mission to not only tear down a fascist empire that has overtaken the Metro, but contend with the haunting ghosts of his past – I'm certain 4A will have found another unique approach to judging morality in a fractured world.

Metro 2039 is a "journey back into Hell" and darker than you've ever seen the series: "You're in a completely different system"

While Persona 4 Revival is sticking to the original game pretty closely, developer Atlus has decided to make one fairly big change to the classic by replacing its entire English voice cast. Why? Series producer Kazuhisa Wada tells us it was kind of an all-or-nothing situation.

"The original game was originally recorded for the English cast, specifically, a long, long time ago," Wada tells GamesRadar+ in an interview from Gamescom 2026, per a translator. A decade-plus gap means some of the OG actors "are no longer in the industry" at all, while some of them are now popular enough that it's "really hard to lock down" their schedules.

For example, in 2008, Yosuke was voiced by Yuri Lowenthal - an actor most commonly recognized nowadays as the lead hero in the Marvel's Spider-Man games. Kanji's voice actor was none other than Troy Baker, who has since been in lead roles in everything from The Last of Us to Bethesda's Indiana Jones game. And Rise was voiced by Laura Bailey, whose gameography is too wide to even begin listing.

"So we realized we can't re-gather that whole cast," Wada explains. "So we're like, 'OK, I guess we have to kind of once again roll up our sleeves. Alright, let's start over. Let's get a whole new cast in and let's do our best.'"

Part of the decision came from Atlus developers having respect for "the work that the original cast did." Having a fraction of the original cast side-by-side with a few new voices might not have been ideal either, after all. "There was quite a few people who we weren't able to get and a number of people... we had so much trouble getting that was like, 'OK, maybe we should just start over.'"

At least one Persona 4 Golden actor was "deeply grieving" being recast in next year's remake.

Persona 4 Revival is a faithful JRPG remake because the original's only gotten more relevant: "We live in an age where information is everywhere"

Metal Gear Solid 4 players on PC have earned one specific achievement right away, and all I can say is that poor statue.

Metal Gear Solid is an incredibly silly game series. The series features some of the greatest stories in gaming, with the best Metal Gear games still hitting like nothing else, even after multiple replays.

But yeah, those games can get dumb as hell.

There's a recurring character whose characterization revolves around his chronic IBS, which turns out to be a family trait, as his ancestor found in Metal Gear Solid 3 also can't stop dropping ass on a near-constant basis.

But aside from Mr. Poop, the games themselves are filled with silly little moments and interactions throughout the world. For example, you can slip on the bird droppings at the start of Metal Gear Solid 2, or the fourth-wall-breaking dialogue about the PS3 (which has been changed). One of these comes at the start of Metal Gear Solid 4, where you can pose next to statues to blend in, but if you go to the well one too many times, Snake accidentally rips off the statue's genitals.

Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol 2 features an achievement for doing so, called "Handle with Caution," which rewards you if you "broke off the most important part of a statue". And yesterday, once the game launched on Steam, BlueSky user Columbologist took a peek at the achievements list and discovered something. Frankly, they put it better than I ever could, with their post reading: "91.8% of players, having waited nearly 20 years for MGS4 to be playable on anything other than PS3, booted the game and immediately made a beeline for a statue's dick."

While the number is at a much lower 21.4% at the time of writing, the fact remains that mere hours after Metal Gear Solid 4 launched on PC, 91.8% of players had already pulled the statues' genitals straight off. Just as Hideo Kojima intended.

The Nintendo ports of Metal Gear Solid 4 replace the iconic PS3 and PSP in-game consoles with generic variants

Growing infatuation with Steam player numbers as a means to gauge a game's success or popularity has ultimately misled a lot of people, worries Palworld liaison and Pocketpair publishing lead John Buckley.

Because Steam is both the dominant platform for PC gaming and the only major platform that shares live, granular player data, Steam player counts, particularly concurrent users, are regularly used as a measuring stick, or just as often, a bludgeon. It could be Arc Raiders, Palworld, Peak, How to Fish, or Baldur's Gate 3; gamers will put you under the SteamDB or Steam Charts microscope.

Buckley's regularly pushed back on the "dead game" doomsaying chucked at Palworld and countless other games over the years, arguing that player falloff is normal and expected, and that numbers often described as dire are in fact quite healthy. In an interview at Gamescom 2026, he describes the Steam number chatter as part of a larger misunderstanding.

"The numbers are so distorted with Palworld," he says. "I so vividly remember the 2.1 million concurrent to half a million concurrent [period]. Some of the most viral posts at that time were, 'This is the biggest game dropoff of all time.' And I was like, half a million people playing a game at any one moment, it makes me want to be sick, how staggering that is."

Though Palworld was biggest on PC, it wasn't only on PC, and this is one problem with Steam math. We can estimate trends based on a game's Steam community, and Steam player numbers do have genuine value and applications, but we can't get a reliable picture of a multiplatform release. The factors driving spikes and dips in those numbers are also much more varied than whether a game is good or bad. Sales, update cadence, server downtime, time zones, and replayability can have a big impact.

In a similar vein, Buckley looks at what concurrent Steam users can and can't tell us.

"And not to dog on SteamDB, because I love those guys, but I think of how public these numbers have become in recent years," he says. "People really love pulling these numbers up recently. Now we know why consoles don't like to share them."

As it happens, Sony recently began testing a tiny PS5 widget which, in some way, offers a snapshot of game activity not too far removed from Steam Charts. And even that small glimpse into the console black box seems to come with huge obfuscation.

"People look at these, and I think that's all really misunderstood now," Buckley continues. "I think people think 500,000 CCU one hour and 400,000 CCU one hour means 100,000 people stopped playing. That's not what it means, because any second two could log on and two could log off.

"I think we need to start sharing DAU [daily active users]. I wouldn't be against making DAUs public – the amount of actual people who played a game in one day. Because I think a lot of people would be shocked how different these numbers are. You know, a game that has 1,000 CCU could have 20,000 DAU. The numbers are quite different."

Buckley, like Warframe boss Rebecca Ford, worries the blood sport that Steam math has become can poison discussion and critique.

"It's hard to deal with those numbers," Buckley adds. "Everyone's getting it. No one's immune to this anymore. Poor Marathon and stuff are getting dragged through the mud with this right now, and I'm sure our day's coming a few weeks from now. I'm sure people will say Palworld's dropped under 100,000. And oh no, under 100,000. It's coming."

Pocketpair lead thought if Palworld 1.0 hit 200k concurrent players, "that'd be party time" – then it passed 900k on Steam alone.

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has, for seemingly the first time, called the next-gen Project Helix a "family of devices."

In an interview with BBC News, the console maker's boss spoke a little about the company's approach to its next generation of console - or consoles - known only by its codename, Project Helix.

"We've been hard at work on a great next generation and a great family of devices for Project Helix," Sharma says, perhaps soft-confirming that there won't simply be one Xbox machine you can buy when the next generation finally rolls around.

This current console generation offered folks the Xbox Series X, the more powerful and expensive sibling, and the Xbox Series S, a cheaper and less capable machine that can play the same games. There's no official word on what Project Helix's "family" will offer yet, but I could see Microsoft trying to repeat its dual-console approach or even dive deeper into handheld gaming.

"We will, of course, continue to push the boundaries of performance. We've talked about being able to not only play your console games, but also play your PC games on your console. I think, in addition, all of the industry needs to start to innovate on affordability and efficiency. That is something that we have not had to do," she adds. "But with the crisis that's currently happening in hardware and components, it is absolutely something all of us need to be thinking about and innovating on and giving people more choice in terms of how they play their console and how they purchase their console."

We don't know much about the Project Helix outside of the fact that it's increasingly sounding like a PC-hybrid machine that can play both your PC and Xbox console games - and the fact that it'll probably be very expensive to buy outright.

Elsewhere in the interview, Sharma did allude to the various different ways people can buy smartphones as a potential solution for the affordability of next-gen consoles, explaining that different business models could suit a wider audience.

And on the subject of The Elder Scrolls 6 potentially launching as an Xbox console exclusive, Sharma simply said "every platform needs some form of exclusive experiences."

Making sense of Xbox's messy return to console exclusivity

The Pokemon Company has signed an exclusive deal with Disney to stream Pokemon Tales: The Misadventures of Sirfetch'd and Pichu, the seemingly delightful stop-motion animated series coming from Aardman (of Wallace and Gromit fame).

Announced during a live panel at this weekend's Pokemon XP event, the full series will be available worldwide next year on Disney+ and the Disney XD channel. There's no exact date or approximate release window just yet, but we were treated to another gorgeous look at the show. Take a look below.

"Join our unlikely heroes, Sirfetch’d and Pichu, in their gallant quest to protect Pokemon across Galar! While their missions might rarely go as planned, their noble deeds forge their friendship as they step bravely into the unknown. Peril, alliances, rivalries, extraordinary Pokémon, and endless laughs await them," the trailer's description reads.

The deal also includes Ash and Pikachu's first classic anime run in Pokemon the Series: The Beginning, which should be streaming now on Disney+ and Disney XD in the US and "select" other regions around the world.

"Pokemon has that rare ability to mean something to longtime fans while continuing to feel completely relevant to young audiences today," Disney executive Ayo Davis said, per Deadline. "This new series Pokemon Tales: The Misadventures of Sirfetch'd and Pichu brings Aardman's signature stop-motion artistry with a bold, playful new perspective to this beloved world, giving audiences a fresh way to experience the characters they know and love."

For those not in the Poke-weeds, Galar is a region in the video game series that first appeared in Pokemon Sword and Shield. The fact that it's inspired by the British countryside likely makes it perfect fodder for the folks at Aardman, and if the other stop-motion animated streaming series is any indication, Pokemon Tales should be a great old time.

The Pokemon Twitter account was briefly taken over by a hacker peddling their crypto memecoin

The Witcher 4's narrative lead Philipp Weber understands why some fans are having trouble letting go of Geralt in the spotlight. He, too, didn't want the iconic monster hunter to take a back seat in the upcoming game, but it's alright, because Geralt will apparently "always have an important role."

A loud contingent of fans upset that Ciri is taking over as the protagonist of The Witcher 4 have been making their displeasure very vocal online. Once a quest designer on The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, Weber's now responded to one such fan.

"I understand that many people feel like this," he tweets in reply to a player calling for Geralt to take Ciri's place as The Witcher 4's lead. Weber even says he "felt like that at the start," so it's CD Projekt Red's "job to prove with W4 that Ciri will be a worthy main character for the game. We take that task very seriously!" And even if his gruff growl isn't front and centre the entire time, "Geralt will always have an important role."

Ciri's role as protagonist has been a hot debate ever since the upcoming CD Projekt Red game's first proper reveal. Engineering production manager Jan Hermanowicz previously told GamesRadar+ that fans should reserve their judgement for after they've actually played the sequel. "When the game will be out, you'll be able to see for yourself and fully embrace her character, her story," he said last year.

The Witcher 4 won't be ready until 2028, the developer recently clarified, but fans will have plenty to sink both their swords into until then. The Witcher 3 Remastered is coming out next month, and it's free for all existing owners, which should be a good appetizer for the Songs of the Past expansion launching next year.

"After all this time, we get to show you more of Songs of the Past, a story long in the making," Weber said of the long-awaited DLC. "Geralt's adventure in Letten contains so much of our and especially our good friends at Fool's Theory's love for the Witcher. And for all our original fans, that chain is for you!!!"

The Witcher 3 Remastered sees CD Projekt Red work with one of the RPG's most beloved modders to make his work "officially available in the game"

As well as featuring Kenneth Branagh going full John Wick as a kick-ass former KGB agent, Apple TV action-comedy Mayday is also a love letter to Top Gun and even uses footage from the '80s classic. According to the movie's directors, Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (Game Night), it was none other than Tom Cruise who said permission: granted.

"We did use a clip from Top Gun in the movie," Goldstein tells GamesRadar+ during an exclusive conversation at San Diego Comic-Con 2026. "It takes place in 1987, and we needed Tom Cruise's permission for that, and he granted it."

Both Mayday and Top Gun: Maverick share a production company in Skydance, and the Top Gun connections don't end there. "One of our editors actually worked on Top Gun: Maverick, and so he already was well versed in aerial photography," Daley adds.

In Mayday, Ryan Reynolds plays Lieutenant Troy 'Assassin' Kelly, a US Air Force Pilot and something of a maverick himself. While Kelly is soon grounded and stranded behind enemy lines in Russia, early scenes see Kelly take to the skies in a fighter jet and a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. Like Top Gun: Maverick, much of this footage was captured in-camera. "We spent a month in the south of France shooting all of our aerials because we wanted there to be as [few] false moments as we possibly could have," Daley notes.

Despite this high-flying start, the bulk of Mayday takes place at ground level after Kelly is rescued by Branagh's bearded, America-obsessed former KGB agent Nikolai Ustinov. Kelly has no hope of getting home without Ustinov's help but luckily for the top gun, Ustinov is prepared to do what it takes to get an all-American hero out of Soviet Russia, even if it means betraying his own country.

The Tom Cruise-approved Mayday releases on Apple TV on September 4. For more, check out our list of the best Apple TV movies, or fill out your watchlist with our guide to the upcoming movies heading your way.

The Elder Scrolls 6 is in development at Bethesda Game Studios, a studio under Xbox's corporate umbrella, but that doesn't automatically mean it'll be an Xbox console exclusive. Xbox's approach and messaging around exclusivity has been inconsistent, but in the months following Asha Sharma's appointment as CEO, the company has been explicit about wanting a return to Xbox exclusives following a period of multiplatform embrace under the leadership of former CEO Phil Spencer. And yet, it remains a mystery whether games like The Elder Scrolls 6, which began development long before Bethesda was acquired by Xbox and are beloved world-over, will be exclusive to Xbox consoles.

At Gamescom 2026, the BBC (via GameSpot) had the chance to ask Sharma about Xbox's approach to exclusivity in general, and you won't be surprised to hear she didn't give the most direct answer.

"We are increasingly going to be one of the largest platforms in the world. Every platform needs some form of exclusive experiences and content," Sharma said. "And so, what we've shared is Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork [Revolution will be exclusive on console to Xbox]. We're going to do the best we can to continue to do that, all in context of the business being healthy, and so we have to balance that."

Pressed on the issue of The Elder Scrolls 6's potential Xbox exclusivity specifically, Sharma simply smiled and said, "it's a beautiful game."

Bethesda and Xbox have been remarkably cagey about The Elder Scrolls 6 for a game that was announced more than eight years ago. The extremely limited teaser we saw all the way back in 2018 remains the only official showcase we've seen, and after months of silence, Sharma herself said she'd experienced a "live playthrough" of the game and praised its "scale and grandeur" and its "even better" story.

At the time, Sharma's visit to Bethesda HQ was met with protestors speaking out against the ongoing layoffs that will ultimately see 3,200 workers lose their jobs under Sharma's leadership.

Onto the real news: The Elder Scrolls 6 will keep Skyrim's famous cheese physics

GTA 6 hype is reaching a fever pitch after yesterday's big Netflix reveal, and it's seemingly making PS5 Pro consoles pretty hard to come by. In the wake of the GTA 6 extended look, most retailers have seemingly run out of stock of Sony's high-end machine, which has left third-party retailers eagerly selling it at exorbitant markups.

As I write this, you can still get a PS5 Pro console from PlayStation Direct for $899. But that seems to be the only major retailer in the US that currently has the console in stock, and I wouldn't count on the supply lasting much longer.

PS5 Pro is in stock at Amazon, but only at $1,299 from a third-party seller. The situation is the same at Walmart. It's out of stock altogether at Best Buy and Target. There's no way of telling if people are actually buying at these prices, but recent eBay listings tell the story – new consoles have been selling for as much as $1,200 there.

It's possible – likely, even – that Sony will replenish PS5 Pro stock for retailers ahead of GTA 6's actual release, but I guess this is the power of GTA 6. People want the best possible experience for Rockstar's next game, and they're apparently willing to pay a premium for it.

GTA 6 is confirmed to feature PS5 Pro enhancements, but we don't yet know what those improvements will look like. Certainly the game looked plenty impressive on the base PS5 during the extended look, and it's apparently unlikely to hit 60fps even on the Pro.

After 13 years, GTA 6's gameplay deep dive has been so worth the wait even my 76-year-old mother has been texting me about it.

Call of Duty publisher Activision is severely ratcheting up its years-long campaign against cheaters, publishing actual footage of a cheat maker being served a cease and desist order.

The game's main line of defense against cheaters is its kernel level Ricochet anti-cheat system, which is installed at the kernel level of your operating system and loads with the game to detect cheats from a privileged position in your PC's security system. That alone stirred some controversy when it was implemented back in 2021, but there's no denying it works. Since then, Activision has caught hundreds of thousands of Call of Duty and Warzone cheaters, but the fight rages on as they adapt and circumvent the latest anti-cheat measures. Now, Activision is going after something closer to the root of the problem: the people actually making cheats.

"RICOCHET Anti-Cheat doesn't end when your match does. Cheat makers operate around the world. So do we," reads a tweet from the official Call of Duty Twitter account. "We're taking the fight directly to cheat sellers.

"Last weekend during the Closed Beta, we went to Ohio to takedown Elocarry. That's not an isolated case..."

In the above video, you see what appears to be an attorney or process server drive up to a purported cheat maker's home, ring the doorbell, and hand a legal notice over to the accused. "What's this?" the person asks. "Attorneys for Activision and, uh, it's a cease and desist order for you."

When the recipient asks for more information, the server tells them to contact the attorney involved and the conversation ends. Naturally, the accused's visual identity is blurred out and their name redacted, but Activision confirms the video is "an excerpt from a real recording." Unnamed but still shamed.

In follow-up tweets, Activision shows the receipts apparently backing up its claim that this isn't the first or only person it's taken legal action against due to cheating in Call of Duty, with several more images of alleged cheat makers being served legal notices.

"In our ongoing fight against cheat developers and sellers, we've disrupted more than 375 cheat reseller operations, served more than 80 cease-and-desist demands and shut down more than 30 vendors," the publisher says. "And there's more to come, including litigation when necessary. We're prepared to take cheat developers and sellers to court to protect fair play.

"BUILD CHEATS. SELL CHEATS. WE WILL FIND YOU."

Activision adds that its latest anti-cheat measures are targeted at "the people and businesses behind cheating products" so that it can "disrupt the ecosystem that profits from them." Included is a screenshot of what appears to be a cheat seller informing its customers of a pause in operations.

"It's another way we're working to make cheating harder - not just for the people using cheats, but for the people building and selling them," Activision says.

Activision is obviously no darling, but this is an easy win for their PR team. If the accused cheaters and cheat sellers are really guilty, they're actively getting in the way of thousands of people simply wanting to enjoy the games they bought with their hard-earned money. Cheating will always be a thing, and Activision itself seems to acknowledge that, but anything that makes it harder and more legally risky to do is a good thing in my book.

Now onto more important matters: After Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 beta, devs promise to fix Captain Price's hair as his unexpected balding goes viral

"There's a couple of different reasons for" Silent Hill: Townfall's 1996 setting, writer Jon McKellan tells GamesRadar+ at Gamescom 2026. But they're all meant to make you feel uncomfortable.

"Some are narrative," McKellan continues, referencing the state of small, working class towns in Scotland during the post-Margaret Thatcher '90s. By 1996, consequences of Thatcher-driven class tension were still covering the UK like a cloud, and Townfall siphons that animosity for its story about the unhappy Scottish town St. Amelia, which McKellan reminds us is riddled with protest signs lamenting the missing "heart" of the community. Developer Screen Burn also wants players to feel awkward in a more physical sense – by taking away their iPhones.

"It's almost like the perfect time for horror," McKellan says about the '90s, "where you don't quite have enough technology to help you. You don't have a smartphone. You don't have maps on your device to help you get around, but it's also not so far back that you don't have anything at all."

"Especially, like, Screen Burn's history" – gameplay in developer's 2017 game Stories Untold utilizes '80s hardware – "our games are quite, you know, dealing with archaic technology and old computers, and we were able to bring some of that into Townfall by setting it in a period where that kind of tech is new for Silent Hill, but not too modern." The earliest Silent Hill games, which were shipped only a few years after real-life 1996, hardly get more tech-heavy than a twitchy flashlight and a rusted steel pipe.

"It feels like the right time period for that," McKellan concludes. "A couple of different factors all made the '90s feel like the right time for horror."

Silent Hill: Townfall is out on September 24.

After Silent Hill f combat discourse, Silent Hill Townfall goes all-in on stealth as "evasion is your only option" sometimes.

Coyote Vs. Acme has unveiled a Looney Tunes-themed popcorn bucket... but it's not for sale.

As star Will Forte says in the promotional video, which you can view below, they decided to put some popcorn in an anvil – a real one – and therefore it's not available for purchase. Because it's a hollowed-out anvil (like, made of steel) with popcorn in it. But it's still pretty funny nonetheless. Anvils have been used throughout Looney Tunes to drop onto the heads of various characters, and yes, we see one in the film.

The live-action/computer-animated hybrid comedy sees a fed-up Wile E. Coyote decide to sue the ACME corporation after years and years of failing to capture the Road Runner. Wile teams up with a reluctant lawyer named Kevin Avery (Forte) in order to bring the entire corporation down, and the two end up uncovering a much darker secret in the process. Dave Green directs from a screenplay penned by Samy Burch. And it currently sits at a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The movie was shelved back in 2022, despite being completed, in favor of a $30 million tax write-off at Warner Bros. Luckily, viral backlash to the decision (and a guy in a Wile E. Coyote costume protesting outside the Warner Bros. lot) allowed the film to be picked up by another distributor. Everyone, say thank you to Ketchup Entertainment.

Coyote vs. Acme is in theaters now. Yay! For more, check out our guide to all the upcoming movies heading your way.

Assassin's Creed godfather Patrice Désilets seemed to have conjured perfection with his new studio Panache's witchy mystery game 1666: Amsterdam, but then the AI accusations came and turned out to be true. Flowers wilted, goats died in their pens, and worst of all, I think many people revoked their Steam wishlist button.

Panache has since made a commitment to removing AI from 1666: Amsterdam before making it playable – which it now is, you can pick up 1666: Amsterdam in Early Access – but one rarely recovers from a full burning at the stake. To make the barbecue worse, Désilets' comments at a preview event attended by GamesRadar+ were seemingly taken out of context by recent reports saying the 1666: Amsterdam team used so much AI on the project, they forgot what was human. So, at Gamescom 2026 GamesRadar+ asked Désilets for hopefully the last time – can he clarify 1666: Amsterdam's current relationship to generative AI technology?

"Yes, I was a bit [thrown]" by those reports, says Désilets. "Yes, we use some AI in the process, mostly at the beginning," he continues, "in conception and pre-production. It's been totally removed, and we won't be using any AI anymore."

Before I'd heard anything about Panache's disappointing AI usage, 1666: Amsterdam was the first original IP attached to a big name like Désilets that I was excited about since… maybe 2012, when Lollipop Chainsaw came out. You see, I appreciate games about beautiful blonde women being agents of the underworld.

So I was looking forward to experiencing 1666: Amsterdam's story of the demon hunter Noa, who uses sorcery to get her way – and her playable cat friend, who's actually a guy from 1999 that got tricked into doing sex magic. It sounds like a darkly feminine, and darkly funny, return to vintage Assassin's Creed, where 300 years of history are separated by only an unlocked gate.

I still want to play that game, which sounds unique for the AA industry and like a candlelit break from the bikinis-and-tequila state of mind the world will be in with GTA 6. It's just that, for me, 1666: Amsterdam will always have the stain of AI on it like cigarette smoke in the ceiling. At the same time, I want to support female character-driven games that do something different than hand me a laser gun or greatsword again, which is also what 1666: Amsterdam accomplishes – and the real way it embodies progress. I'm torn. What is my moral obligation?

OK, 1666: Amsterdam. Take my Steam wishlist back while I decide.

1666 Amsterdam feels like the Assassin's Creed game that never was, and fighting witch hunters with my time-traveling familiar left me hungry for more.