This year's Super Bowl halftime show has Bad Bunny as a headliner, but could Scorbunny appear in the commercials? The Pokemon Company announced that a "special video" will air during the game as part of the franchise's 30th anniversary celebration.

A brief teaser of the commercial shows a CGI Jigglypuff waiting around in a backstage room. Super Bowl LX pits the Seattle Seahawks against the New England Patriots and airs on Sunday, February 8.

It's unlikely that the TV spot will include any new information about upcoming Pokemon video games, with an official press release emphasizing that the ad will highlight the IP's "growing audience of diverse, global and multigenerational fans across three decades."

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Aliens have been invading Earth in video games for decades, but Roadside Research's visitors from another may be staging the most ridiculous invasion while posing as gas station attendants. Now, Roadside Research is heading into early access, and these aliens are paving the way for a larger incursion force.

Developer Cybernetic Walrus and publisher Oro Interactive have announced that Roadside Research will hit early access on February 12. As you can see in the trailer below, these aliens aren't exactly masters of disguise. They don't bother to hide their alien limbs, and putting paper pictures over their faces isn't exactly hiding their true nature. Luckily for them, most of the humans they're observing aren't much brighter.

Players shouldn't get too complacent when attending to their duties at the gas station. Humans can and will suspect players are aliens if they screw up too much. Attracting too much attention will only lead Agent Mulder-like feds checking out the gas station and poking around where they don't belong.

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February 4 is a special day in the history of Grand Theft Auto, as it was on this day four years ago that Rockstar first publicly acknowledged the existence of Grand Theft Auto VI.

The company said on February 4, 2022 that "the next entry in the series is underway," though it did not specifically mention the game's name or any other core details.

The next major development for GTA 6 came not from Rockstar or Take-Two, but as part of a massive leak in September 2022 that showed off an early version of the game and its setting. Within days of the leak coming to light, the supposed perpetrator appeared in court and was held in a youth detention center. The leak was huge, revealing the game's setting of Vice City, and that it would feature two main characters. It also revealed that GTA 6 could feature sex robots and alligators.

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Late last month, Ubisoft abruptly canceled the highly anticipated Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake. Now, a collectible Sands of Time dagger has surfaced, and it appears that it was part of Ubisoft's plan for the game's collector's edition or promotional press material.

YouTuber Quiver posted a video of the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time collectors' set, which was engraved with the game's title. This has led to speculation that the Sands of Time remake may have been closer to launch, at least at one point, than previously believed.

GameSpot has reached out to Ubisoft for comment or clarification. It's unknown if the dagger and box were meant for members of the press or if they were going to be produced for the deluxe editions of the game.

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Grand Theft Auto VI is set for release this November, a date that Rockstar parent company Take-Two re-committed to during its latest earnings briefing. Take-Two also teased that Rockstar's marketing campaign will begin in earnest this summer. The game is coming to market with a huge amount of hype behind it, so how much marketing does Rockstar really even need to do?

That's the question that Mike Hickey of Benchmark put to Strauss Zelnick during a recent earnings call. He said Rockstar will not "sit back and relax" ahead of GTA 6's release. "I think the opposite is true," he said, going on to tease that Rockstar has some major plans in store to hype the game up.

"You're talking to a team that you've known for 17 years, and we're in the business of eating red meat for breakfast. I think we'll be having a lot more red meat in the coming months," he said.

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No Rest for the Wicked is an ARPG that allows you to utilize a variety of builds based on your equipment, playstyle, and, most importantly, stats. As you level up by defeating enemies and completing quests, you'll be able to put points into different stats that you think will benefit your current build. Of course, as with any RPG, your build preferences could very well change over the course of the game.

Fortunately, No Rest for the Wicked does allow you to respec your stats, giving you a chance to reallocate your stats and create an entirely new build. However, you might have to wait quite a while before you're able to respec, and the price to do so can be steep.

Respec process in No Rest for the Wicked explained

To sum it up quickly, you can respec your stats in No Rest for the Wicked by visiting the Cerim Crucible, which is unlocked after you complete the quest "Spoken and Unspoken." In the Crucible, you can find a statue that allows you to pay one Fallen Ember for every 10 stat points you want to respec.

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There aren't too many complicated parts of No Rest for the Wicked, as it's an ARPG where you explore a mostly linear map and fight enemies along the way. You'll encounter NPCs with quests to give, bosses that can stop you in your tracks, and towns that provide you with a break in the action and a place to buy and sell gear and items.

However, in the first few hours of No Rest for the Wicked, you might encounter the Western Bridge Door, which requires the Western Bridge Key to open. In all likelihood, you won't have this key in your inventory, so where do you find it, and what does the door hold behind the Western Bridge?

Finding the Western Bridge Key in No Rest for the Wicked

The Western Bridge Door and Western Bridge Key are actually nowhere near each other, which is why finding the key can be so confusing. Even if you search all around The Shallows area of the map in No Rest for the Wicked, you won't find the key until you start one specific quest.

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Recently, Take-Two's share price got hammered after Google unveiled Project Genie, a new technology that claims to allow people to create video game worlds. Billions of dollars of market cap were wiped out in a single day, and not just Take-Two, but also for companies like Unity and Roblox.

Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick has now reacted to the drawdown, saying bluntly, "I have to admit, I'm a little confused." Zelnick made these remarks during the company's latest earnings briefing, seemingly referencing how experts believe Wall Street has lost the plot yet again and do not fully understand how video games are actually made.

"The video game business since its inception was built on the back of machine learning and artificial intelligence. We create our games in computers with technology. And ever since questions began about generative AI about 18 months ago, I've been incredibly enthusiastic about what the future can bring," Zelnick said.

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Two obscure games with familiar characters and concepts have made their way to Nintendo Switch Online's Game Boy application. Balloon Kid and the Yoshi puzzle game are now in the Nintendo Classics library, and they both have some interesting tidbits behind them.

Yoshi (the game, not the character) is a falling-block puzzle game developed by Pokemon studio Game Freak. It's a curious addition to Nintendo Classics, as the NES version of the game, which launched simultaneously with the Game Boy version in Japan, is already on the NES Switch Online app. While the release may be somewhat redundant, it will certainly appeal to anyone who grew up playing the Game Boy version instead.

Balloon Kid, directed by Metroid series producer Yoshio Sakamoto, is a sequel to Balloon Fight. But while the NES favorite was focused on arcadey action, Balloon Kid has an actual story, centering on a young girl rescuing her brother. Released in 1990 in North America, Balloon Kid had a radically different branding when it came to Japan.

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Nintendo has formally announced the next Nintendo Direct, and it's coming up very soon. The Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase will take place on February 5, starting at 6 AM PT / 9 AM ET. It will be streamed in all the usual places, including YouTube and Twitch, as well as Nintendo Today.

The event will run for about 30 minutes and will focus on third-party Switch and Switch 2 games.

This may not be a surprise to everyone, as a February 5 Nintendo Direct had been rumored for some time. It will be the third Direct of 2026, following a Super Mario Galaxy Movie Direct on January 25 and the Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream Direct on January 29.

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Less than a month after releasing into early access, Hytale creator Simon Collins-Laflamme has taken to social media to thank the game's supporters, saying its early success will allow the studio to "accelerate" as it works towards full release.

Collins-Laflamme said last year that Hytale's $20 early access price was "as aggressively low as possible" at "considerable personal risk," but the risk already seems to have paid off. In a blog posted to X, the studio founder reveals that early access sales have already exceeded expectations, which will allow the Hypixel team to "accelerate, take risks, and invest in long-term systems."

This includes hiring more developers to complement Hypixel's team, which had around 50 people on board as of last November. Collins-Laflamme has also called on modders to go wild with the early access game, asking them to "break the things that need breaking."

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Take-Two has confirmed in its latest earnings call that the highly anticipated GTA 6 is on track to meet its November 19 release date, but CEO Strauss Zelnick also took a moment to address a far older Rockstar title--Grand Theft Auto Online. Zelnick has reconfirmed his belief that Rockstar will continue supporting the popular multiplayer game, as long as people continue to play it.

The first details about a potential GTA 6 online multiplayer mode were recently leaked as part of the Rockstar v. union court battle in the UK, revealing that Rockstar is testing 32-player sessions similar to the multiplayer sessions in GTA Online. However GTA 6 having a similar online mode doesn't necessarily mean that 2013's GTA Online will be sunset, at least according to Strauss Zelnick.

"Rockstar Games is the locus of information about, you know, where the titles go content and marketing, and generally we have a pretty light touch when we talk about the label’s creative activities," Zelnick said, as reported by Kotaku. "At the same time, I have every reason to believe we'll continue to support GTA Online. There's a great community that loves it, that stays engaged. And again in this quarter, Rockstar has shown that when you deliver great additional content, despite how long [GTA Online] has been at market, people show up."

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Nintendo shares have seen their biggest drop in 18 months, after the company's quarterly earnings call revealed a decline in profit margins and saw executives fending off rumors of a Switch 2 price hike.

The Japanese gaming company's stock fell as much as 11% in a single day following the earnings call, Bloomberg reports. While the Switch 2 continued to sell well, selling just over 7 million units this quarter to beat the average analyst estimate of 6.5 million, the new console's lower profit margins saw the company's profit ratio take a dip. Despite sales and income mostly trending upwards, Nintendo's profit nevertheless failed to meet projections.

Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa acknowledged that the company was feeling pressure from a difficult market, with component costs increasing due to the AI boom, but said the company is well-positioned to handle it for now. "We are engaging in long-term discussions with our suppliers to ensure we maintain a stable intake of chips," Furukawa said. "We do not expect major impact during the fourth quarter of this year. However, from the next fiscal year onward, if this price hike lasts longer than anticipated, it could potentially put pressure on our profitability."

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AMD, which was confirmed last year to be in a "strategic, multiyear" partnership with Xbox to build its next generation of consoles, has hinted that a new Xbox home console could launch as early as 2027.

As part of AMD's quarterly earnings call, CEO Lisa Su revealed that an Xbox console launch could be coming up sooner than expected, The Verge reports. "Development of Microsoft's next-gen Xbox, featuring an AMD semi-custom SoC, is progressing well to support a launch in 2027," Su revealed as part of AMD's prepared remarks.

The statement doesn't confirm that a new Xbox will release in 2027, but it shows that at least AMD's side of the partnership will be ready should Microsoft opt for a 2027 release date. Xbox shared some details on its next-gen console plans when it announced the AMD partnership last year, teasing a new generation of Xbox hardware "in your living room and in your hands." Microsoft promised the AMD-powered console would deliver more immersive gameplay and higher visual fidelity, all enhanced by AI capabilities.

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Despite Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick's enthusiasm for AI in game development, he has promised that generative AI "has zero part in what Rockstar Games is building" when it comes to Grand Theft Auto 6. The statement comes after Take-Two stock plummeted following Google's announcement of its new AI world-generation tool Project Genie.

Zelnick isn't shy about the use of AI within Take-Two, telling GamesIndustry.biz that the company is making extensive use of AI and machine learning and "always has." This includes generative AI tools, which Zelnick says "are driving costs and time efficiencies" within the company.

"On the topic of AI, I've been enthusiastic since the very beginning," he said ahead of the company's Q3 earnings call. "This company's products have always been built with machine learning and artificial intelligence. We've actually always been a leader in the space, and right now we have hundreds of pilots and implementations across our company, including within our studios."

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Marvel actor Danny Ramirez had to drop out of The Last of Us Season 3 due to a scheduling conflict, and now his replacement as Manny has been named.

Actor Jorge Lendeborg Jr., known for his roles in Spider-Man: Homecoming and Bumblebee, is stepping in to play Manny, Deadline reported.

What's more, Clea DuVall has joined the cast for Season 3, but there is no word yet as to who she may play. DuVall is known for her roles on the TV shows The Handmaid's Tale and Veep.

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After eight years, the Epic Games Store has established itself as a viable alternative to Steam. Valve's storefront is still the largest digital marketplace for PC games, but Epic says that it never aimed to dethrone it. Epic Games Store general manager Steve Allison says that the company is aware of this and instead strives to co-exist in this ecosystem alongside Steam.

"Steam is a huge part of the PC ecosystem," Allison said to Games Industry Biz. "It's not going away. We're not going to topple Steam. PC gaming, by virtue of the competition and by virtue of us existing, has grown. That growth, per se, may or may not be attributed to all of us competing, but players are shifting a lot of their hobby from consoles to PC. Of course, we'd be thrilled to be 50% or more market share of PC."

Even with Epic estimating that it attracts roughly a 35 - 40% share of monthly active users, it believes the storefront accounts for only 5 - 8% of spending. That's not an insignificant sum, as Epic posted its year-in-review stats this week and confirmed that over $1 billion was spent in the store throughout 2025. Epic plans to attract more PC gamers, starting with a complete overhaul of the Epic Games Store that should deliver a faster, smoother shopping experience.

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Fallout season two's long journey has finally reached its end. While this season spent a lot of time following our heroes through Mojave Wasteland, last week set up the final stakes. The Ghoul (Walton Goggins) made his way into the Lucky 38 and reactivated Mr. House (Justin Theroux), Maximus (Aaron Moten) found his fight against the vicious Deathclaws bleed into Freeside, and Lucy (Ella Purnell) faced a moral dilemma as she came face-to-face with the mainframe of the Automated Man devices, which are now fully functioning thanks to her father Hank (Kyle Maclaclan). With all these storylines finally reaching their apexes, it's time to dive into what choices our heroes made.

The episode opens up with a bloody civil conflict amongst Caesar’s Legion. In the chaos, Lacerta Legate (Macaulay Culkin) manages to get his hands on Caesar’s corpse and drag it to his tent where he learns that his final will was for the Legion to die with him. Refusing this fate for the Legion, Lacerta kills the nearby soldiers and destroys the will, taking the golden laurels for himself. Officially crowning himself as the new Caesar, he unites the Legion and vows to march into New Vegas to establish a new “Palace.” This is met with thunderous applause.

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All points came to a head this week in New Vegas for the Fallout season two finale. While this season spent a lot of time giving us a glimpse into how the Mojave Wasteland had changed since we last saw it in Fallout: New Vegas, the finale delivered on being an immensely satisfying ending while also setting up bombshells that we can’t wait to see play out in season three. With lots of build up comes lots of opportunity to slip in easter eggs and references from the video games and beyond, so let’s take a look at what was shown this week.

Caesar’s Palace

The finale showed Legate Lacerta (Macaulay Culkin) take over the Legion as the new Caesar. After committing bloodthirsty acts of murder, he promises to lead the Legion to the New Vegas strip with hopes of building a new “palace” for them to call their own. This is a winking nod to the real life Caesar’s Palace resort and casino located on the Las Vegas strip. Opened in 1966, it's one of the oldest operating hotels in Las Vegas and features impeccable Roman theming. The resort was most famously featured as the main setting for the 2009 film The Hangover.

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Lego The Lord of the Rings: Sauron's Helmet (538 pieces)

$70 | Releases March 1

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This year marks the 25th anniversary of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and this spiky Lego replica of the film trilogy's big bad's helmet is a great way to celebrate the milestone. The Fellowship of the Ring wasted no time in introducing Sauron as an almost unstoppable force of evil, and the Lego set perfectly recreates his intimidating helmet as a display piece for your shelf. Priced at $70, it'll be released on March 1.

Lego The Lord of the Rings: Sauron's Helmet (538 pieces) $70 | Releases March 1

Like its other busts, the 538-piece Sauron helmet is designed for adult collectors. In addition to all the pieces that you'll use to craft a detailed replica of the helmet, you'll also build a display stand and a name plaque. A Sauron minifigure holding The One Ring completes the set, and it measures over 13 inches high and five inches wide once fully constructed. Just like the real-life prop designed by Weta Workshop, the completed helmet features imposing horns and a menacing glare, but with a Lego twist.

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Another great Lego Lord of the Rings set is the $460 Barad-dûr Dark Tower. A massive 5,471-piece kit, this is a replica of the infamous location that housed the Eye of Sauron, and it stands nearly three feet tall once fully assembled. The Lego recreation of the dreaded building has five levels and several cool Easter eggs, like a secret passageway to the Palantir chamber. It also comes with 10 minifigures, including Sauron, the Mouth of Sauron, Gollum, Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, Gothmog, and several Orcs. New stock is on its way to the Lego Store, but you can also get it through Amazon and Best Buy right now.

If you need a smaller Lord of the Rings set, there are plenty of other options to choose from. The $270 Shire set is a vibrant recreation of Bilbo Baggins’ hobbit hole, and it includes nine minifigures to help you recreate Bilbo's 111th birthday party. You can also build something grander, like the Elf stronghold of Rivendell, and add some "you shall not pass!" flair to your bookshelf with the Balrog Book Nook.

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