After Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard, one of the first things people theorized was that the company would have one of Activision's numerous Call of Duty studios work on Halo. That already happened, according to a new report, and though it hasn't led to anything yet, that could change down the road.

According to Rebs Gaming, who has accurately reported on unannounced Halo news before, Microsoft enlisted Sledgehammer Games to help develop a Halo multiplayer game.

Halo Infinite

Sledgehammer reportedly began work on a prototype in June of this year, but whatever this was ended up getting canceled in July--only basic gameplay elements like player movement were said to have been tested.

That doesn't mean the idea of a Call of Duty studio working on a Halo game is gone forever, however. The report said, "Microsoft is still exploring the proposition, but they have not greenlit anything yet."

In July, Windows Central reporter Jez Corden said he heard a "crazy rumor" that Microsoft "might put Halo under Activision." He said this wasn't a sure thing, but it could be part of a larger restructuring to help Halo "start delivering on the level of potential that it actually has."

The Halo series has fallen from its heights, with many fans saying the series, under Halo Studios, has been unable to achieve the same critical and commercial success as it did under Bungie. The latest game in the main series, Halo Infinite, was a disappointment to many.

The latest remaster of the original Halo game, this July's Halo: Campaign Evolved, didn't resonate with everyone, either, and the lack of multiplayer support cofounded many, including the franchise's co-creator. Campaign Evolved didn't get off to the best sales start, either, it appears.

No new Halo games have been announced, but Halo Studios is said to be working on a new Halo multiplayer game that is "like Fortnite" in terms of its live-service approach.

It appears Sony is preparing to remove an entire studio's library from the PlayStation Store after August 23, according to Ukrainian developer Ternox Games.

The developer behind Stonks-9800, a stock market sim with an '80s vibe, took to X on August 16 to reveal the news. Ternox Games stated that, without any reason, their contract with Sony was "unilaterally terminated" and all of their games will be pulled soon. And now, Stonks-9800--which has been in Steam Early Access since July 2023 and has an "overwhelmingly positive" rating on the platform--will no longer make its way to PS5 as a result of this termination.

https://twitter.com/Taimumari/status/2089021552012525708

"Sony PlayStation unilaterally terminated my PlayStation developer and publisher agreement without giving me any reason," the developer wrote. "My existing games are scheduled to be removed from the PlayStation Store after August 23."

In a follow-up X post, Ternox Games said PlayStation Support "refuses to listen to my arguments or even respond to my emails in any way." As a result, Stonks-9800 is no longer launching on PlayStation 5, and they will no longer be able to self-publish on PlayStation. 13 games, some of which Ternox Games published, will be pulled after August 23.

"I had hoped to release the PS5 version in 2027 and make a physical disc edition while that was still possible," the studio continued. "Sadly, that will not happen--but I'll do my best to create a physical edition for PC and Switch. I'm really sorry that this happened and that I failed the developers whose games I published. But there's nothing I can do about it now, unfortunately. I still have a tiny bit of hope that this decision will be reconsidered, so please share this message if you can."

It's unclear why this is happening since Ternox Games' titles doesn't appear to fall under the shovelware category. However, due to Sony's "stricter guidelines" on shovelware, and the company's intent to remove as many of these games as possible, some online have suggested that Ternox Games got caught in the crossfire.

Sony has been in hot water lately, especially following the announcement that the company plans to stop producing physical PlayStation discs in January 2028. Under just about every post and video the company puts out are comments from netizens decrying Sony's decision. It's come to the point where over 220,000 people have signed a petition urging the company to change its mind.

The Switch version of the dinosaur-survival game Ark: Survival Evolved is ramping down its online support. Developer Studio Wildcard announced "with wistful hearts" that official servers for the Ark: Survival Evolved and its Ultimate Survivor Edition will shut down on August 31.

The game reached "over a million players" on Switch since the game launched in 2018. The Ultimate Survivor Edition is a remaster made by Grove Street Games.

"We want to thank everyone who has been a part of this journey," the developers said.

Ark's single-player modes and unofficial servers will remain "fully playable" after the official servers go dark on August 31. That's a nice silvering lining, though playing online with other people is one of the game's main appeals.

Unofficial servers will help people keep playing online, but it might not be as easy or the experience as consistent.

Ahead of the shutdown for official servers, Survival Evolved is available for $5 on the eShop, while the Ultimate Survivor Edition is marked down to $12.50. Both games are playable on Nintendo Switch 2 via backward compatibility.

The latest Ark game, Survival Ascended, is not available on Switch, but Studio Wildcard is working on it.

There's no shortage of Star Wars games in development right now, but one game set in a galaxy far (far!) away that you won't be playing is an AAA action-RPG set in that sci-fi series. Developed under the codename Magellan--it's worth noting that Zynga has never officially confirmed this project--the project would have allowed players to pick up a lightsaber and play as a Jedi, or, if they wanted to be cool, a Mandalorian.

According to official development materials seen and uploaded by MP1st, Magellan was in development at Echtra Games, but the studio was shut down last year by its owner, Zynga. NaturalMotion was also assisting on the game's production, which reportedly kicked off in 2021. Some footage shared by a former Echtra Games developer shows off a third-person ARPG with plenty of shoot-and-loot gameplay, featuring two character classes: Jedi and Mandalorian. Jedi have their signature lightsabers and the ability to use the Force, while Mandalorians can use their jetpacks to get around, flamethrowers, and ranged weaponry.

https://bsky.app/profile/mp1st.bsky.social/post/3mta2kmdefc2u

Both classes could use gadgets like electric grenades, and the core gameplay loop seemed to revolve around obtaining "Booster Gear" from enemies and opening reward chests. An "NPC Bond System" would also have allowed players to build relationships with NPCs when they weren't fighting Stormtroopers and droids. Magellan was originally targeting a PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S release, but work on the project ceased, and Magellan joined a long list of canceled Star Wars games, like Star Wars 1313, Visceral's Project Ragtag, and a Republic Commando sequel.

While Magellan is currently one with the Force, the wait for new Star Wars games is paying off with the release of the XCOM-like Zero Company on August 27 and Star Wars: Galactic Racer on October 6. This year's D23 also had plenty of reveals for the wider Star Wars franchise, including a new look at Ahsoka's second season, the upcoming Star Wars: Starfighter movie starring Ryan Gosling, and the recent release of The Ninth Jedi, a standalone spinoff of the Star Wars: Visions anthology.

The Best Star Wars Games Of All Time View Images

Over the weekend, Disney's D23 expo not only revealed that Kingdom Hearts 4 will feature Pixar's Coco, but also that the action-RPG is set to arrive in late 2027. Now, it's been a long time since we've seen a new mainline installment in the Square Enix series--already over seven years at this point. So people are expressing skepticism about the release window, but franchise co-creator Tetsuya Nomura is promising Kingdom Hearts 4 will come out next year.

VGC reports that Nomura, who's co-directing Kingdom Hearts 4, appeared on stage Saturday at D23 to discuss the new title. "We announced that the game is going to be coming late 2027, and I saw online that some people were saying, 'Oh, you know, maybe the actual release date might still get pushed back,'" Nomura said through a translator. "I just wanted to set the record straight: That is not happening."

Along with the release window, the world of Coco looks to have a major presence in Kingdom Hearts 4. In fact, Sora is even seen fighting alongside Hector in the new trailer for the RPG (seen above). It was also confirmed that Donald and Goofy will be playable characters for the first time ever in the franchise.

Kingdom Hearts 4 was originally announced over four years ago for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, during the franchise's 20th anniversary in 2022. In June, the game was announced for Switch 2. Kingdom Hearts is one of Disney's nine gaming franchises to generate over $1 billion. Hilariously enough, former Disney CEO Michael Eisner has no memory of giving the first game his approval almost a quarter of a century ago.

The Best Way To Play Kingdom Hearts View Images

Disney invested more than $1.5 billion into Epic Games to help create synergies between Fortnite and the company's lucrative theme park business, and now how that integration works is coming to light.

As revealed at Disney's D23 event this weekend, Fortnite is integrating with the Smuggler's Run ride at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. For anyone just catching up, Smugglers Run is an interactive motion simulator attraction that has six people piling into the Millennium Falcon as they work together to collect crates for the fan-favorite pirate, Hondo. With this new Fortnite collaboration, those crates will now unlock content in the game.

Here's how it works.

Connected to this, Fortnite is adding a new Fortnite island called Smugglers Gambit, which takes place around Mersa Veta Station on the planet Ord Ryla.

"You’ll team up with friends, take on co-op missions, battle pirates and Imperial remnants, encounter dangerous wildlife, unlock new gear, and build your reputation across the Outer Rim," reads a line from the description. "And because this is Hondo we’re talking about, there are plenty of opportunities for things to go wonderfully right… or spectacularly wrong."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7__yYz8kg4o

People need to connect their Epic Games and MyDisney accounts for this to work. This integration is already live, having launched on Sunday, August 16 at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. One of the first perks is the Forsworn Trooper Outfit, which you can see in the image above.

Disney's CEO, Josh D'Amaro, is a big believer in video games and was personally spearheading the company's investment and collaboration with Epic Games. Beyond this new partnership, D'Amaro has said one day people may be able to buy Disney Cruise Line tickets inside Fortnite or watch a Disney movie.

Additionally, Disney is said to be working on an Arc Raiders-style game to be released in Fortnite.

Marvel's Wolverine looks like it could be a major highlight of a stacked September, but if you look online, many people are already calling the game dead on arrival for a number of reasons. One of the primary complaints stems from Marvel's Wolverine being a linear single-player action game instead of an open-world one like Marvel's Spider-Man 2--which ironically, was chided for being just that prior to release by people online who claimed to have open-world fatigue.

That's hardly surprising, given how platforms like X literally pay users for manufacturing drama that, in turn, drives engagement. Insomniac's community and marketing director, James Stevenson, has called out the toxic nature of these websites, and how they reinforce negativity loops.

"I think the wild way this algorithm amplifies and forces negativity upon you has me reconsidering my philosophy on telling devs to look or post here," Stevenson wrote. "It's a relentless onslaught that I cannot believe is good for anyone's mental health nor representative."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i247qa_YL_A

Stevenson also pointed out that X was flooding his feed with negative content, which he attributed to the site's algorithm. A recent study by the University of Toronto found that X's recommendation algorithms heavily favor high-engagement content, inflammatory political posts, and polarizing posts, something a number of users have become experts at generating. The more engagement they create, the better their odds of generating revenue through the monetization of their profile via the Original Content Rewards Program. It's similar to the seedier side of YouTube, where engagement-baiting thumbnails and bad-faith takes are explored through various videos.

Insomniac was also on the receiving end of toxicity back when X was known as Twitter, as prior to the release of Marvel's Spider-Man, Reddit users claimed one shot of the game included fewer puddles than were shown in the same scene at E3 2018. Insomniac would later poke fun at "Puddlegate" with an update that allowed players to add as many puddles as they could ask for via stickers in the game's photo mode.

It's also not too surprising to see Marvel's Wolverine caught up in online toxicity, as just about anything related to PlayStation has become a focal point for people to vent their frustrations at following Sony's decision to end disc production in 2028. As other replies have pointed out, online hate-- manufactured or genuine--doesn't equate to real life, and the best option might be to just ignore the haters, not exactly easy when you're trying to find constructive and thoughtful criticism from players instead of a social media dogpile for various flimsy reasons. 

Marvel's Wolverine launches on September 15 for PS5, and so far, early previews suggest that it'll be a rock-solid entry in Insomniac's library of superhero games. "It's undeniable that Insomniac's take on Logan is firmly planted in familiar game design, but Wolverine is clearly doing more than just fitting a typical story of the character in it," managing editor Tamoor Hussain wrote in GameSpot’s Wolverine preview.

Sony also announced a limited-edition Marvel’s Wolverine PS5 bundle, console covers, and a new DualSense controller inspired by the game, which will be available to preorder soon.

2003's The Simpsons: Hit & Run is a cult-classic, GTA-inspired open-world game. Fans have been clamoring for a remake, remaster, sequel, or some kind of revival for years. It may finally actually be happening, as series creator Matt Groening offered a tantalizing tease at Disney's D23 event this weekend.

A fan in the audience said since Disney is producing a The Simpsons Movie sequel, might that also mean Hit & Run will get a follow-up? Groening, admitting he might be "speaking out of turn," teased, "I think the original game is coming back in some form."

This led to cheers from the audience. However, longtime series producer Matt Selman quickly chimed in with, "Or not."

The suggestion here is that Groening may indeed have spoken out of turn and shouldn't have said what he said. In any event, Selman agreed with fans that a new Hit & Run game "would certainly be a treat."

Also during the panel, Groening shared some history about an earlier The Simpsons game, 2001's Road Rage, saying he was told by higher-ups that calling a game "Road Rage" might lead to more road rage incidents in real life. After that game sold well and was received positively, no one had a problem with the Hit & Run title, Groening said.

Selman went on to say another issue that had to be sorted out was that Road Rage's concept was obviously inspired by Sega's Crazy Taxi series. Selman said an exchange of money fixed the problem.

"The lawyers of Crazy Taxi said, 'you can't rip off Crazy Taxi.' And, money changed hands," he said.

https://youtu.be/L0xCNt00gAE?si=D6sBvkR8ab1yGU24&t=1378

In March this year, Selman said he knows people love Hit & Run and the team has a "never say never" attitude about a possible revival of some sort.

He helped write the game, and admitted he had “no idea” it would become such an enduring success. In 2021, Selman told IGN that he would “love” to see a remaster of the game, but said such a project might be a challenge due to the “complicated corporate octopus.”

The original main cast of The Simpsons came back to voice their characters for Hit & Run, and it probably wouldn’t be cheap to have their voices either re-recorded or re-licensed for a potential remake/remaster project. And that’s just one consideration, as The Simpsons has different stakeholders and beneficiaries who would presumably need to sign off in some way. Another issue at play could be how Disney bought many of Fox’s entertainment assets, including The Simpsons, since Hit & Run was released.

The Simpsons: Hit & Run was developed by Radical Entertainment, a studio that closed in 2012. One of the studio’s founders, Ian Wilkinson, started a new company, New Radical Games, which offers services like work-for-hire and co-development for mobile and console projects. The studio’s website also states that it does porting and remastering.

The Simpsons: Hit & Run was originally released for PS2, GameCube, and Xbox, with a PC port following. Presumably, any new game would be released on modern platforms.

After Saber Interactive unveiled its upcoming title Rideshare Stimulater, former lead writer Stella Sacco came forward and said that she had been replaced by ChatGPT during development. Saber CEO Matthew Karch denied Sacco's allegation that she had been replaced by AI, but the company has now shared previously undisclosed details about Rideshare Stimulator's AI usage.

Rideshare Stimulator casts players as a driver who can pick up a seemingly infinite number of passengers and interact with them while getting them to their final destinations. According to the new disclosure on the game's Steam page, Rideshare Stimulator uses AI tools for "voice generation and some localization" and AI-generated passenger missions that can be skipped if players only want "human-written narrative content."

It also adds that the game will have radio stations with "human-made music and AI-generated music," with the latter being clearly labeled in-game. However, Saber flatly states that "the main campaign story, characters, and dialogue are written by a team of human writers."

Earlier this week, Sacco said that she was replaced as the game's lead writer by AI "midway through development."

https://bsky.app/profile/antlervel.vet/post/3mssv7pyows2l

"They took me off the project to use ChatGPT to write the rest of the text, including planned live updates," Sacco told PC Gamer in a subsequent statement. "If they changed plans in the intervening years, that's great. But again: I was there, and it was my job to write the game, and then it wasn't once Matt Karch decided using ChatGPT would be great publicity for the game."

Karch released a statement of his own with This Week in Videogames that added greater controversy to the story by claiming that Stella "violated" her agreement with the company.

"Stella who? I had to ask Claude because I have never spoken to her or seen her. We have already said we are using AI for certain parts of the game and will update the Steam page once we have finalized the feature set. Let me clarify that the entire story script, were it to win an award, would go to someone who can walk up on stage and receive it. It was always our intention to reveal this until Stella violated her confidentiality clause and revealed this before we were ready."

Karch added his belief that "our use of AI in this particular game, which will be a lower-priced title, [will be a plus] for consumers." So far, the game's potential players don't appear to share that sentiment. The discussions page on Steam has several comments calling out Saber for its AI use on this game.

Rideshare Stimulator will be released on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. This game doesn't currently have a release date.

Halo: Campaign Evolved is set to receive its first major patch next week, one that will give players more control over the game's visuals as well as make improvements to Jackals and Sgt. Johnson.

As outlined by the Halo Support X account, a patch coming sometime next week will fix a few pain points for players of Halo Studios' remake. The update should make graphics purists happy, as it will add the ability to disable the game's very noticeable film grain and chromatic aberration. The patch will also include "additional stability improvements across multiple platforms."

On the gameplay front, Jackals are receiving some changes so that they can be staggered more reliably when targeting their hands and feet, as has always been the case in Halo. Sgt Johnson is being updated so that he no longer blocks mission progress. This sounds like it will mostly affect the three new prequel missions included as part of the remake, where Johnson occasionally needs to hack open doors before Master Chief can proceed. Marines and Flood Marines will also correctly fire their Assault Rifles with the Magnified Skull turned on.

https://twitter.com/HaloSupport/status/2087947309334012346?s=20

It remains to be seen if the patch will address other issues players have spotted since release, including unresponsive enemy AI and cutscenes that lock up and fail to play properly. Halo Studios states there will be more details in the full patch notes when the update is released. It's also worth noting that any mid-mission saved progress will be lost upon downloading the new update, though unlocked missions and rally points will remain.

The launch of Halo: Campaign Evolved may not have gone as well as Halo Studios would have liked, with reports indicating the game is off to a slow start on PlayStation 5 and has sold a combined total of 1.2 million copies across all platforms so far. 

According to one analyst, Halo: Campaign Evolved's greatest competition, particularly on PC, might be Halo itself. The franchise's compilation package, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, released over a decade ago and contains almost the entirety of the Halo franchise, including online multiplayer, and can be bought for $40 at the high end or much cheaper when on sale. When compared to Halo: Campaign Evolved, which only features the first game's campaign, no multiplayer, and retails for $50, it's not hard to see why some players decided this was a fight that didn't need finishing. 

Given the remake's performance, it's unclear what is coming next for the franchise, though Halo: Campaign Evolved does seemingly tease a Halo 2 remake.

Deborah Ann Woll plays Faye in the upcoming PS5 game God of War Laufey, and she had quite a memorable first day on set. At San Diego Comic-Con recently, she shared a story about how, on her very first day, she broke a famous prop from The Last of Us due to her strength and tenacity--only she didn't know the significance at the time. And now, footage of the event has arrived.

"Unbeknownst to me, this was a very famous prop that they had used on The Last of Us," she said, going on to joke that it was "some sort of sporting equipment." It was actually a golf club prop, and you probably know what that means...

"They gave it to me and I was supposed to use it like an axe. And I broke it," Woll said.

Game director Ariel Lawrence added, "She swung it so hard, it cracked. And it echoed throughout the volume. And we were like, 'Hot damn, let's go.'"

https://twitter.com/SonySantaMonica/status/2088280064974635337

God of War: Laufey is in the works now for PS5, and it's arriving in February 2027. Starring alongside Woll is The Boys actor Jack Quaid, who plays a gelatinous cube named Phranque.

A new Kratos-led game is coming after that, and it will pick up where Laufey left off.

US Senators Josh Hawley and Dick Durbin have announced that Roblox will be the subject of a congressional investigation amid claims that the gaming platform is a threat to child safety.

"You trumpet Roblox as a safe digital playground for children as young as five," the pair wrote in an open letter. "But the public record raises serious questions about this promise of safety. Over the past decade, police have arrested numerous individuals for committing serious acts of violence and harm against children they met via Roblox, including grooming, sexual abuse, kidnapping, rape, and even murder. Roblox is being used to trade child sexual abuse material, participate in sexually explicit--and often violent--virtual 'experiences' with children, bribe and extort children into producing explicit content, and lure children into in-person meetings. It is heartbreaking."

"Roblox appears to prioritize revenue and engagement metrics over the safety and well-being of our children, and the alleged criminal activity on Roblox warrants congressional scrutiny. Let us be clear: children on your platform are hurting. Congress will not look the other way."

Roblox

Hawley (a Republican from Missouri) and Durbin (a Democrat from Illinois) added that Roblox reported 65,381 instances of suspected child sexual exploitation to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in 2025, more than doubling what it reported in 2024. Headed by the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, Roblox Corporation has been instructed to preserve its records and turn over certain documents by August 31.

The investigation will also require Roblox CEO David Baszucki to provide evidence as to how Roblox will better police itself.

"Roblox is built on the foundation of safety. We do not compromise on that commitment," Roblox’s chief safety officer Matt Kaufman said in a statement (via Politico). "We look forward to sharing the facts about how we protect children on the platform."

Roblox has been the subject of significant scrutiny recently. Australian lawmakers have it in their crosshairs over reports of grooming and sexual content, Florida’s Attorney General has described it as a breeding ground for predators, and the Attorney General of Texas sued The Roblox Corporation over child-exploitation accusations.

Earlier this year, Roblox Corporation agreed to pay more than $12 million to the state of Nevada as part of a move to create a safer environment for its young users, but other regions, such as the United Kingdom, have suggested drastic solutions to protect children online.

Activision has announced that the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 beta will have more than just multiplayer content. The MW4 beta will also include access to the campaign mission, Entrenched, along with the upcoming Warzone mode, Resurgence Zodiac.

Activision will show off some of this content during the Call of Duty: Next event on August 21. As announced previously, the beta begins with an early access period August 21-25 for people who preorder, before opening up to everyone to try August 28-September 1. The early-access beta will not be available on Switch 2, as preorders for the Switch 2 version don't begin until August 28.

The MW4 beta approaches.

Activision also revealed all the maps, modes, and content in the beta. You can find the full details in GameSpot's rundown of the MW4 beta.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 releases on October 23 for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Switch 2, and preordering grants access to the campaign a week before launch. The game coming to Switch 2 is notable since the franchise hasn't appeared on a Nintendo platform since 2013's Call of Duty: Ghosts.

MW4 is also the first entry since Ghosts in 2013 to skip PS4 and Xbox One. Infinity Ward is leading development on the game, which comes after back-to-back Black Ops releases, the latter of which, 2025's Black Ops 7, had the worst sales ranking in the US since 2008.

Also noteworthy for Modern Warfare 4 is that it will not launch directly into Xbox Game Pass, as both Black Ops 6 and Black Ops 7 did.

Disney has outlined just how powerful and important video games are to the company's future. In a blog post ahead of D23--where Kingdom Hearts news is expected--the company's gaming boss, Sean Shoptaw, revealed that games are now a "fundamental part of the broader entertainment landscape."

He said Disney has reaped the rewards, with nine of its gaming franchises grossing more than $1 billion at retail so far. "So, it’s about telling truly original stories that really are unique to this medium, specifically," he said.

Some of these include Kingdom Hearts and Marvel Strike Force. Shoptaw added that more than half of the nine franchises have only appeared in the past 12 years. Disney runs multiple game outfits, including Disney Pixar Games, Marvel Games, Lucasfilm Games, and 20th Century Games, just to name a few, all of which live under the broader Disney Games banner.

Disney Games has reached about $3.5 billion in consumer spend annually for the past four years, exceeding $4 billion in the past fiscal year alone. Shoptaw said this helps hammer home how gaming will be a "key part of Disney's storytelling strategy in the present and the future."

He added that Disney isn't necessarily all that interested in doing things like movie tie-ins, which were popular in the '90s and early 2000s. Instead, he said Disney wants to create original games that tell new stories, with Shoptaw citing Marvel's Wolverine as a prime example.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0llQ8tuYRU

One of Disney's biggest bets in gaming in recent years has been through its partnership with Epic Games and Fortnite. Disney has invested more than $1.5 billion into Epic Games, and Shoptaw said its partnership is a "really important one."

“Our partnership with Epic is a really important one,” Shoptaw said. “What Epic has built with Fortnite has really created one of the most important social entertainment platforms in the world, and certainly for us, we see a ton of opportunity to bring our great characters, stories, and worlds into that universe and build something truly unique to Disney.”

"Our ambition is to create something truly transformational. A space that people can come play, watch, and create, and a space that we bring all of Disney together in one connected universe."

Disney has brought many of its franchises to Fortnite already, and its Simpsons collaboration was particularly successful. Looking ahead, Disney is planning even more in Fortnite, reportedly including an Arc Raiders-style game.

Disney's new CEO, Josh D'Amaro, is a big believer in games and has suggested gaming could be Disney's next big growth-driver, after the company's stock price has been flat over the past decade. Some have theorized that Disney could buy Epic and Fortnite to help grow the business, but nothing has materialized as of yet.

Disney was, at one point in history, a developer of games itself with its Disney Interactive Studios label. This unit of the entertainment giant produced a number of games over the years, including the Disney Infinity "toys-to-life" series. However, Disney shuttered Disney Interactive Studios and now focuses more on licensing. Former CEO Bob Iger spoke candidly about Disney’s struggles making and publishing games internally, admitting, “We haven’t been particularly good…”

High on Life is coming to a new platform, as the irreverent first-person shooter with talking alien guns is getting a VR port. Announced during the VR Games Showcase, this new version of High on Life will launch for Meta Quest, PlayStation VR2, and SteamVR headsets in 2027.

Originally developed by Squanch Games, the VR port of High on Life is being handled by Flat2VR Studios. The developer says that it is essentially rebuilding the game so that it can take advantage of VR tech, allowing players to interact with their talking--and opinionated--guns. The trailer below shows off some of these new features, like being able to stroke your weapons and feed them, and we bet they'll have something to say about that.

"As we're adding all of these fun, manual VR interactions, it's really important that they make sense in gameplay and that they're maintaining the fast, fluid, and powerful feeling of combat," High on Life VR game director Emily O'Neil said in the reveal trailer.

https://youtu.be/EQziBgQgrJI

First released in 2022, High on Life saw players take on an alien cartel that invaded Earth and turned the populace into recreational drugs. As an up-and-coming bounty hunter armed with Gatliens--sentient guns that could be used to solve all kinds of problems--the game was a hit thanks to its weird sense of humor, fun gameplay, and an extremely Australian knife hellbent on stabbing everything. A sequel was released earlier this year, but reviews were lukewarm, thanks in part to various technical issues that hampered its launch.

VR fans can also look forward to a port of System Shock from Flat2VR Studios. Not much was revealed about this project, but the teaser trailer suggested that the VR version will be based on the superb 2023 remake of the cult-classic 1994 game.

Christian Allen, who was on the leadership team at Warner Bros. Games when 2011's The Lord of the Rings: War in the North came out, has commented on the recent re-release, saying he's happy the game is coming back because it didn't get a "fair shake" upon its original release. Why's that? He said he "argued vociferously" not to release it at the same time as Bethesda's iconic RPG The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

"15 years ago I argued vociferously not to release this up against Skyrim, as it wouldn't get a fair shake. I got overruled," he said (via VGC). "Nice to see it get a proper release."

War in the North is back.

War in the North was originally released on November 1, 2011--just 10 days later, Bethesda released Skyrim. In addition to launching around the same time as Skyrim, War in the North launched on the same day as Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception and a week before Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

Allen did not work directly on War in the North in a development capacity, but he was on the studio leadership team. He said the developers at Snowblind, which has since shuttered, "deserve all the credit." He said when War in the North was originally released in 2011, it got "lost in the wash," while "every review just compared it to Skyrim (as I predicted they would)."

Allen went on to say War in the North had "hardly any marketing." He theorized that the executives either "wrote it off or thought hardcore Lord of the Rings fans would just know about it, somehow."

While not discussing War in the North's release date specifically, Allen theorized that higher-ups at publicly traded companies may be discouraged from shifting release dates because of how such changes could affect bonuses.

"Quarterly revenue motivations drive more decisions than people realize. It's a big challenge with stock-price driven organizations," he said. "Must be hard to be an exec and go 'Well, this game will do better if we hold it until March, but my bonus will take a 50% hit,'" he said.

Aspyr Media licensed War in the North from WB and re-released the game this week in the Legacy Edition. The publisher is planning to re-release more Lord of the Rings games in the future.

After spending time in the US military, Allen joined Red Storm Entertainment in 2002, where he became the creative director and design director for the Ghost Recon games. He then moved to Bungie, where he was the design lead on Halo: Reach. In 2009, he joined WB Games as design director. He later started his own company, Serellan, before joining Epic Games to become its lead Unreal Engine evangelist. He's now the design director at Project Zomboid developer The Indie Store.

2K Games has announced the formation of Small Axe Studios, a new developer that it says will be focused on building a new "blockbuster" sports franchise. While the publisher--which is owned by Take-Two Interactive--has commented which sport will be joining its other franchises, it looks like 2K might be taking on EA's annual soccer series, EA Sports FC.

Currently, Small Axe Studios includes several former EA developers, with Aaron McHardy as studio head. McHardy had previously been in charge of EA's FIFA franchise for 15 years, and other notable names include Gary Peterson as Small Axe's head of design, Tom Pan as head of operations, technical art director John Cruz, and engineering lead Mike Thompson--all EA veterans.

Small Axe Studios logo

Another clue that 2K Games will be making its own soccer game is the Small Axe logo, which resembles a soccer club badge on a shirt. While EA has dominated the soccer genre on console and PC--forging its own path forward after it split with FIFA in 2023 and transitioned to EA Sports FC. There hasn't been a new AAA FIFA game since then, but the international soccer body has kept the brand active with mobile games and a World Cup game on Netflix.

Now is also a good time to strike while the proverbial iron is hot, as following the recent FIFA World Cup, soccer got a huge visibility boost as record numbers of people tuned in to watch the tournament.

Small Axe Studios joins a roster of game studios at 2K that focus on specific sports and have proven to be very popular over the years. NBA 2K, PGA Tour 2K, and WWE 2K have all been big hits for Take-Two Interactive, drawing in revenue not just from launch sales but from various microtransactions as well. Both Take-Two Interactive and EA have been criticized for how aggressively they monetize their games, with fans accusing them of pushing pay-to-win mechanics.

Earlier this summer, Netflix-owned developer Night School released Unhinged, a horror game that was playable on televisions/screens through the streaming app. Unhinged was met with acclaim by players, and Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters recently called Unhinged one of "our two most successful cloud game debuts" during an investor call. Regardless, Night School has been shuttered by Netflix's latest round of cuts.

As reported by Game File, Night School and Moonloot are the latest gaming developers to be closed down by Netflix. According to the outlet, Netflix justified the closures by noting that the streamer is narrowing its focus to games for kids, party games, story-driven titles, or "games with mainstream hooks."

"We see an opportunity to be more focused in our execution, so we are making organizational changes to the business to match those priorities," said Netflix in a statement to Game File. "Games continue to be an opportunity for us to expand the variety of entertainment we offer Netflix members."

This isn't the first time that Netflix has made gaming cuts at one of its developers after praising its work. Earlier this month, Netflix laid off 85% of the staff of Refactor Games, the developer behind a FIFA World Cup title that Netflix identified as the other most-successful cloud game debut alongside Unhinged.

In July, Netflix boasted that its gaming engagement had gone up 600% from the previous year. While Netflix has previously shared its ambition for a larger stake in the gaming world, the company was notably uninterested in purchasing Warner Bros.' gaming assets before the proposed sale fell through and Paramount emerged as the winning suitor. Another report indicated that Netflix considered buying EA, one of the largest third-party gaming publishers. EA was later sold to a group that includes Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and taken private.

Pedro Pascal plays Joel in HBO's popular The Last of Us, based on the Naughty Dog game, and he has been praised for his performance. However, he wasn't the only actor in the mix for the role.

Oscar-winner Matthew McConaughey revealed more details on the Happy Sad Confused podcast about why he didn't star on the show. The Last of Us "was really good but it wasn't for me at the time," the actor said.

He added that signing on to The Last of Us would have also meant committing himself to the project for potentially years on end. "In success, this is something you'll be doing for years and years and years," he said. At the time he was circling The Last of Us, McConaughey said he "wasn't really acting" and was focusing more on writing and leadership roles in filmmaking.

It would have been a reunion for McConaughey and HBO, as he previously starred on True Detective. That is an anthology series, and McConaughey appeared in the first season only, alongside Woody Harrelson.

https://youtu.be/peXOgVAUm40?si=iOBaVWIfRAm1mX3X&t=2364

Before this, The Last of Us showrunner and writer Craig Mazin said he had talked to McConaughey about playing Joel, but it was more of, "Hey, here's something we can talk about" as opposed to a definite thing was that happening.

"Look, Matthew McConaughey is an amazing actor. I’m sure it would’ve been great, but it would’ve been different and I like the one that we made," Mazin said.

The Last of Us Season 1 was released in January 2023 and it was a huge hit. Season 2 followed in 2025, and a third season is now coming in 2027. In addition to Pascal as Joel, the series stars Bella Ramsey as Ellie and Kaitlyn Dever as Abby.

As for the game series, it's rumored that Naughty Dog is working on The Last of Us: Part III, but this is not confirmed. What we do know is that Naughty Dog is making a new game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, though we have not seen it in some time.

Remakes and remasters are popular, but Benson Russell, a designer on Uncharted: Drake's Fortune at Naughty Dog, has said he's not interested in a new one for the 2007 game.

Speaking to FRVR, Russell said he's not against the idea of remakes and remasters generally, but he said Uncharted is "still in the zeitgeist" and available on modern platforms. "What's the point of remastering [or remaking] it?" he said.

Instead of a remake or a remaster, Russell said a better idea might be to do what fans have been clamoring for: make a new one. “Take the lessons of Uncharted 4 and make a new game ..." he said.

Russell went on to say a remake or remaster of the original Uncharted could feel "more like a cash grab" than something that people was thought was "necessary" to bring it up to modern standards. He would like to see Naughty Dog "take the spirit" of the franchise and make a new game.

Bloomberg previously reported that Sony considered remaking or remastering Uncharted, but decided against it because it would be "expensive and require too much added design work."

While Uncharted never got a remake or remaster, Naughty Dog's The Last of Us and The Last of Us 2 both had remastered versions. As for a new Uncharted game, a new entry in the series was reportedly planned some years ago and fans now believe Naughty Dog is teasing a new game.

The original Uncharted game is playable today on PS5 and PS4 via Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection--this also includes Uncharted 2 and 3. These include updated, remastered versions of those three games.

A lot of people embrace and enjoy remakes, while others say developers should instead spend more time and resources on entirely new games. Gaming legend Shigeru Miyamoto, for his part, defended remakes and remasters, saying they are good for a number of reasons, including to help younger generations experience games they might have missed. Additionally, money from remakes and remasters can fund future games, he said.