Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has teased that an Xbox version of PlayStation's Platinum trophy system could be coming to Xbox, and potentially soon.

Replying to a social media user who asked when Xbox might get an "equivalent" to Platinum for Xbox achievements, Sharma said, "Team is working on something for later this year!"

https://twitter.com/asha_shar/status/2085043552837636502

Platinum trophies are awarded when players unlock all the other trophies. It's a badge of honor, of sorts, for some people. There is no equivalent on Xbox currently for when people unlock all achievements.

While Xbox fans wait, the newest Xbox update is rolling out now with new improvements and features for the achievement system. Users can now sort games by name, completion percentage, Gamerscore earned, and number of achievements unlocked. The update is out now for Xbox Insiders and will be available to everyone else later.

Sharma took over as Xbox CEO earlier this year and one of her first big moves was to "reset" the Xbox business to help it return to profitability and growth. This has involved mass layoffs, game cancellations, and studio divestitures.

Diablo 4 is reportedly headed to Nintendo Switch 2 this September, in what may be the first of multiple Diablo-related announcements coming as part of this year's BlizzCon.

As detailed by Dealabs reporter billbil-kun, game classification organizations in Indonesia and Taiwan both point towards a Switch 2 version of Diablo 4 existing, with Dealabs independently reporting a September 15 or 18 release date. The site also reports it will allegedly retail for $70 and receive a physical release, though it will only be a code in a box and not a physical cartridge.

What's currently unclear is whether or not Diablo 4 on Switch 2 will include both of the game's two expansions, including the most recent, Lord of Hatred. The base version of Diablo 4 currently retails for $50 on other platforms, with a $70 "Age of Hatred" collection including both expansions also available. That could be an indication the Switch 2 version of developer Blizzard's ARPG will include the complete Diablo 4 package, but that remains unconfirmed for now.

When this new way to play Diablo 4 will be officially revealed remains to be seen. It's certainly possible it could be announced at Gamescom August 26-30, where Blizzard parent company Xbox will have a presence. However, it seems more likely the port will be announced as part of BlizzCon on September 12-13, with the game's alleged release date being just a few days later.

It wouldn't be the first time Diablo appeared on a Nintendo platform. Blizzard previously released both Diablo 3 and Diablo 2: Resurrected on Nintendo Switch. 

It's been a big year for Diablo 4 already, with the game's Lord of Hatred expansion being well received, even if its current season caught flak from fans for major changes to how Mythic items work. Blizzard will be revealing more details about the game's next season at BlizzCon, but has already confirmed it will add classic items from previous Diablo games as well as allow players to use the same character each season. There will likely be other Diablo-related announcements as well.

As for BlizzCon, Blizzard has certainly been hyping up this year's show. Blizzard president Johanna Faries said earlier this year that 2026 is Blizzard's "biggest year yet" and that it's cooking up "major swings" for its franchises that will be revealed at the show.

"I have total confidence that the teams are going to come very, very big, both with the heart and soul of what I think our core-most fans long for in a BlizzCon, but also bringing some very new things to the table," Faries said.

British actor Luke Dale, known for his roles in the Kingdom Come RPG series and EA's Battlefield V, has announced that he bought a tavern in the Czech Republic and plans to turn it into a medieval-inspired social gathering place with great food and drinks.

"Is this the dumbest thing I've ever done? There's a lot of competition for that title, but maybe," he said in a newly released video (via GamesRadar).

The tavern, which is called the Nobleman, is located in Vinohrady. It's aiming to be a Bohemian-inspired tavern that isn't a themed pub or a tourist destination, but instead a cozy gathering place with good beer and food. He said he aims to offer British and Czech food, along with his favorite kinds of beer (which he did not name). The plan is also to lean into the medieval vibe, with things like shields and other trinkets adorning the walls.

He also admitted that he is very new to this, and there is "so much work to done," so his plans today could change in the future. In any event, Dale said his job as an actor and streamer doesn't always feel "real" to him, so he wanted to have a physical space in the world that "felt real."

He said he is "so humbled and appreciative" of the Czech Republic, where he moved years ago, and that the aim is for the Nobleman to be a "love letter to Prague."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fPxje7SLHk

This was the first in his video series for the tavern, and he will release follow-up videos over time as the project progresses.

As for the Kingdom Come series, developer Warhorse is working on a new entry in the series as well as a The Lord of the Rings RPG.

Rockstar owner Take-Two will release its next earnings report on August 7, but instead of coming after the market closes at 4 PM ET, the report is being released before it opens that day at 9:30 AM ET. Another unusual element is that the report is coming on a Friday. What does it all mean?

We don't know for sure, but one stock analyst said this setup suggests a major announcement about GTA 6 could come before August 7.

Gabelli Funds portfolio manager Alec Boccanfuso said (via SeekingAlpha) that the unusual timing could be a setup to give investors time to digest a big announcement of some kind before the earnings report.

Is the next GTA 6 trailer coming this week?

This lines up with a report from Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson that suggested the next GTA 6 trailer could land on Thursday, August 6. Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick has also stated that the marketing push for GTA 6 will begin this summer, so there could be some announcement tied to that.

GTA 6 launches on November 19 for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, and expectations are sky high. Analyst Nick McKay of Freedom Capital Markets said GTA 6 could sell 30 million copies in its first three months. He said the GTA franchise overall is now "much larger" than it was when GTA 5 came out in 2013 and that the "pent-up demand [for GTA 6] should be significantly higher."

In other news, The Last of Us co-director Bruce Straley recently said he isn't sure if he's interested in GTA 6. He asked people to tell him why they're excited for the game, and he got a lot of responses.

The recently released ports of Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2 for PlayStation sold more than 11 million combined copies, generating nearly half a billion dollars, according to industry analyst Rhys Elliott.

The games, which were developed by Iron Galaxy, were shadow-dropped on PS4 and PS5 on July 9, featuring campaign, multiplayer, and Zombies. The games were not remakes with improved graphics or new features, but instead "straight 1080p ports," as Elliott put it.

Technical experts found that the ports feature barely any noticeable improvements at all, and that was the whole point for many. Fans wanted the OG experience, made available on modern systems.

According to Elliott, the $40 games sold so exceptionally well due to massive pent-up demand (the games are available to PS Plus subscribers for $20 until August 6). Previously, the only way to play the games on PlayStation was to find an old PS3 and go from there since they were never made available via backwards compatibility on PS4 or PS5.

"As per our estimates, Black Ops 2 sold 8.2M copies on PlayStation (93% on PS5, 7% on PS4) for about $325M, while Black Ops 1 sold 3.0M (94% via PS5) for $110M. Combined, that’s $435M on PlayStation in under a month," Elliott said.

The Black Ops ports were hugely popular.

Microsoft and Activision are the big winners here, and so is Sony--its 30% cut works out to about $130 million "for doing basically nothing" but hosting them, Elliott said.

"Basically zero marketing or ongoing development costs are eating into that check. That single month of cataloge CoD sales on a rival platform effectively funds a massive slice of Xbox’s quarterly first-party operational overhead," Elliott explained. "And the combined $435M is already nearly as much as Forza Horizon 6 has made via base game sales all year."

Elliott described the move to release the Black Ops ports as a "low effort, low risk, high reward catalogue mining." Activision also released $30 DLC bundles for both games, featuring many multiplayer maps.

He added that the success of the Black Ops ports further demonstrates that Microsoft is not going to make Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox--there is simply too much money to be made by having Call of Duty on PlayStation. Elliott went on to say that the success of the ports also demonstrates that a "proper" reboot of Black Ops "would do absolute gangbusters."

The next new Call of Duty game is this October's Modern Warfare 4. A multiplayer beta for the game goes live later this month.

Ironmouse's Sprite is now available to claim in Fortnite, but it seems there could be more on the way as the popular VTuber teased some further content for September.

On a recent stream, when asked about whether she would be releasing a Fortnite skin, Ironmouse said, "Just a Sprite today. Period." She shortly followed that up with, "That's all I'm going to say ... Also, do you guys know that I have a Subathon coming up in September and a lot of cool things are happening? I'm just saying, you know."

The Ironmouse Sprite was released as a standalone addition to the game in honor of her streaming anniversary on August 4. To get it, search the map for Sprite Chests, kill an opponent wearing it, or it could be found wandering the island randomly.

Equipping it will take up a new inventory slot, Ironmouse will appear on your back, and you'll get the ability to regenerate health over time when low. While you're regenerating health, you'll also gain a Cloak that will give you partial invisibility, as well as the low gravity effect.

While the Ironmouse Sprite is available to get now, some players were reporting issues with the item. Occasionally the Sprite would not be granted if players extracted from a match with one, or some Sprite Chests would be empty. On the issue, Ironmouse said, "If it's broken, I'm sorry, it wasn't me."

After several hotfixes, it seems the Fortnite Ironmouse Sprite issues could be fixed now, but is this the last we'll see of Mousey in the battle royale? It seems like we'll have to wait until September to find out, but I, for one, would absolutely grab an Ironmouse skin.

The 16 Worst Fortnite Skins Of All Time View Images

Beast of Reincarnation launched this week, and while the game does have several technical issues, co-developer Game Freak says that a patch is on the way. This will target several areas of the game, including bug fixes, improvements to the pacing of the game's story, and increasing the font size to something that doesn't require the Hubble Space Telescope to read. Game Freak says that it's aiming to release the patch next week.

One of the fixes will be for the game's camera, as many players have complained about it being too close to the protagonist Emma, making battles harder than they need to be. "Story pacing improvements" are also listed; increased text size is on the way, and the game's default graphical mode will switch from Cinematic to Performance mode.

In our Beast of Reincarnation review, GameSpot's Jake Dekker commented on how the game's lack of polish holds it back from reaching its true potential. "Beast of Reincarnation is an ambitious game that often overextends itself. The lack of polish taints its versatile combat, the mundane performances and wearisome dialogue suffocate its tantalizing story, and the uninteresting areas drag down strong art direction," Dekker wrote.

Out now for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, Beast of Reincarnation was developed by longtime Pokemon studio Game Freak and Fictions. If you're on Xbox or PC,  and you have a Game Pass Ultimate/PC Game Pass subscription, you can download and play the game right now as it was added to the service this week. To help you out on your journey, you can check out GameSpot's Beast of Reincarnation guides, including helpful tips, the best skills to focus on, and how to change the difficulty.

Journalism in 2026 is done almost entirely digitally, and information can be at practically anyone's fingertips in just a few seconds and a few taps on a phone screen. It wasn't always that way, however, and in Barkbyte Interactive's Static Hour, you venture to the 1980s to see how the limited technology of the era was used to report the news--and how it can be used to solve a spooky mystery.

Static Hour puts you in the shoes of an editor working the night shift at a news broadcaster. As the only one in the office, it's up to you to decide what's fit to broadcast, and it just so happens that a massive outbreak of violence has the public terrified.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CqD3Mnx1n0

To figure out what's going on, you'll make use of old-school journalistic tools like a rolodex, as well as the government's emergency alerts and police-scanner chatter. What information you choose to broadcast will affect how the public acts, and you could potentially plunge the town into further chaos.

"With Static Hour I wanted to create a retro psychological thriller about isolation and misinformation, where you're given staggering responsibility and must trust yourself in determining what is accurate, Barkbyte founder and creative director Claire Sarmiento said in the official announcement. "I loved the idea of spooky things happening in a small town just out of sight, where the horrors are driven by audio and left to your imagination."

You'll be responsible for verifying stories' truthfulness, as well, and Barkbyte says the entire experience will exist in the newsroom itself. You'll be sending field reporters out to check on stories, or you can choose to ignore them entirely and let everyone panic.

Static Hour doesn't have a release date yet, but will be available for PC on Steam.

Big Walk is here, and it's already earning a reputation for being a delightfully offbeat third space for friends to inhabit. It's a massive game, and as players have discovered, it does have a slight microphone problem currently--one that developer House House is working on fixing.

"We understand that some people are having a problem where their friends' voices are too quiet in the game. Sorry about this," House House wrote in a blog update. "While Big Walk is built around players getting quieter when they are farther away, we can see that for some setups, players' voices are much quieter than intended even when very close by. We're working to put out a fix as soon as we can."

There's no shortage of puzzles in Big Walk, and communication is the key to success. The game uses a feature where the volume of your voice is dependent on your proximity to your friends. The closer you are, the more easily you're heard, while staying at a distance will result in your voice being harder to hear--just like real life. Fortunately, there are other tools for communication in Big Walk, ranging from gadgets to visual markers so that you can coordinate your group efforts toward solving a puzzle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWfg9iLq55c

Out now for PC, PS5, and Switch 2, Big Walk is already earning rave reviews. On GameSpot's sister site Metacritic, it has a metascore of 94 from 14 reviews, making it the highest-reviewed game of 2026 currently. If you have a PlayStation Plus subscription, it's one of August's free games through the service.

"Big Walk takes fundamental and timeless video game concepts–obstacles and incentives for clearing them–and, through an intensely focused co-op experience, shapes them into something singularly rewarding, supremely mysterious, and totally unforgettable," Mark Delaney wrote in GameSpot's Big Walk review.

The Best Friendslop Games To Play With Buddies In 2026 View Images

It's been nearly seven years since developer House House released its breakthrough title, Untitled Goose Game. The company's follow-up, a co-op puzzle-solving game called Big Walk, is out now, and it's already achieved an unexpected critical milestone on PlayStation Plus Essential.

As reported by GameSpot's sister site Metacritic, Big Walk has landed with a 94 score among reviewers. That makes it the most critically acclaimed game to ever be released on PS Plus Essential on day one. Last year's indie adventure-puzzle hit Blue Prince achieved nearly the same score, with a 92 on Metacritc, but it was released on PS Extra, not Essential..

GameSpot's Big Walk review calls it a game of the year contender and hails it as one of the best co-op games ever created. "Big Walk takes fundamental and timeless video game concepts–obstacles and incentives for clearing them–and, through an intensely focused co-op experience, shapes them into something singularly rewarding, supremely mysterious, and totally unforgettable," notes the review.

For anyone who is just getting started with the game, GameSpot has put together eight tips you need to know ahead of playing Big Walk. Players who have already dived into Big Walk should check out our guides on how to get shiny and how how to solve the 4166, 1899 puzzle.

Big Walk is available now on PC, PlayStation 5, Switch 2, and Mac.

The blockbuster buyout of Electronic Arts has been completed, with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund taking ownership of the gaming giant in the biggest leveraged buyout (LBO) in the history of commerce.

The $55 billion deal includes billions in debt for EA, which has prompted fears of massive cost-cutting with projected layoffs, studio closures, and game cancellations. Nothing has been confirmed as of yet, however.

"This moment recognizes the extraordinary people whose creativity, ambition, and passion have made EA one of the world's leading interactive entertainment companies," said EA CEO Andrew Wilson in the official announcement. "We're entering this next chapter from a position of strength with partners who share our vision and ambition. Together, we'll invest boldly, accelerate innovation, and build the next generation of games and experiences for the hundreds of millions of players and fans who inspire us every day."

"Entertainment and sports are key areas of strategic focus for PIF, and are among the fastest growing and evolving sectors around the world," added PIF Deputy Governor and Head of International Investments Turqi Alnowaiser. "Together, the Consortium is uniquely positioned to be a long-term partner to EA's management team in driving sustained growth and innovation for EA and the industry."

The PIF is buying EA alongside Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner's private equity firm Affinity Partners and investment company Silver Lake. The company's co-CEO, Egon Durban, was previously on the board of directors at the gaming company Unity.

EA has gone private.

EA announced the buyout back in September 2025, but it didn't close until today, August 4, due to the regulatory approval process. It was due to close earlier, but after Europe approved it in July, that set the stage for it to finally do so.

PIF previously had a 9.9% stake in EA, and that's getting rolled into this deal. EA stockholders will get $210/share as part of the buyout, which represents a tidy 25% premium over the company's stock price on the last full day before the deal came to light and subsequently sent the price soaring. Now that the deal is done, EA is being removed from the public stock market. And with that, we'll have much less insight into how EA is operating from a financial perspective.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson will remain CEO of the company, but it remains to be seen how long he may stick around. He became CEO in 2013 and has overseen a period of massive growth for EA, as the stock was trading around $27 when he became CEO. His remuneration has grown as well, with the latest company filings revealing Wilson was paid $38 million in total compensation in the previous fiscal year. In that same year, EA laid off many developers, including people who worked on the successful FPS Battlefield 6.

Concerns

Developers at BioWare said they feared that the RPG studio could be one of the first EA-owned companies to see cuts under the new ownership. BioWare is known, in part, for making pro-diversity games featuring inclusive storytelling and characters. Longtime BioWare writer Patrick Weekes, who was laid off in 2025, speculated that EA’s new owners, including the PIF, might want to avoid “gay stuff” and politics that the PIF’s leadership does not agree with. Developers working on The Sims have expressed ongoing concerns as well.

Additionally, cosplayers raided EA’s California headquarters in protest of the deal.

EA's $55 billion sale is not the biggest-ever gaming acquisition, as that record belongs to Microsoft, which paid $75.4 billion to acquire Activision Blizzard.

The PIF already bought the mobile and social gaming giant Scopely (Monopoly Go) and Niantic's gaming division, including Pokemon Go, so this is just the latest massive move for the Kingdom.

Piers Harding-Rolls of Ampere Analysis said EA may look to “cut excess spending and rationalize the company’s workforce” to help bring in more money to address the debt. A report from Financial Times said EA might look to further bolster AI tools and technologies to help cut development costs and drive profitability. To be sure, EA had said it was already doing this, as are other companies who are embracing AI in an attempt to reduce costs.

Mat Piscatella of Circana told GI.biz no one can say for sure what happens next for EA, but history may not be on EA’s side. “Leveraged buyouts have a certain history that generally hasn’t been great for the acquired companies,” he said.

EA's final earnings report

EA's latest earnings report, released on August 3, showed gains for revenue and profit in the April-June quarter. The company's net bookings of $1.35 billion increased $51 million year-over-year, but came in below analyst estimates.

EA said increased sales of extra content for Apex Legends helped with the increase in bookings, as did full game and microtransaction sales for Battlefield 6. However, these gains were partially offset by lower sales of Split Fiction, which released during the same quarter the previous year.

EA's earnings reports will no longer be made public now that the company has gone private. Some experts and industry veterans believe EA going private, and no longer needing to answer to public stakeholders, will lead to some benefits.

Fiona Sperry was the top boss at EA’s Criterion Games and is now the CEO of Three Fields Entertainment. She said in an interview with GI.biz that, “I’d be really excited about the opportunity that going private would entail.” Publicly traded companies answer to their shareholders and are known to push games out the door to meet a quarterly earnings deadline. In a private setup, a company like EA could–in theory–change how it releases games.

“However experienced you are, the reality of game development means that you’re often having to compromise your game to hit a date–a date you most often had to commit to long before you’ve finalized the design,” she said. “You have to design to the date rather than the other way round. And it’s really hard to do that when you’re trying to innovate.”

“EA has amazing creative teams and hopefully this will give them the chance to really utilise that creativity and take some risks. Don’t get me wrong–dates are important for focusing everyone–but sometimes you just need more time,” she added.

Piers Harding-Rolls of Ampere Analysis said EA going private means the company is no longer beholden to the market at large and subject to everything that comes with being a publicly traded company. This, in turn, could allow EA to focus less on meeting quarterly financial targets and more on “long-term strategies and investments.” Of course, the investor consortium acquiring EA will surely have its own performance targets and demands that EA meets–not to mention the aforementioned debt to address–though the setup won’t be the same as when a company is available on the open market.

In recent years, the trading card game (TCG) environment has seen a boom of new games entering the market. There are still genre mainstays, like Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon, and Yu-Gi-Oh!, which continue to receive support and feature a thriving secondhand market. However, new original IP TCGs like Flesh and Blood and Sorcery are making rounds at the local game store level and beyond.

But licensed IP TCGs, like One Piece and the upcoming Cyberpunk TCG, have also taken the tabletop world by storm. Riftbound, the League of Legends trading card game, is no exception. After releasing late last year (at least in English), Riot Games' popular TCG has developed quite a large fanbase, leading to a massive presence at Gen Con in Indianapolis. GameSpot's Jessica Cogswell was present during the show, and got the chance to sit down with Riftbound game director Dave Guskin, who explained that the Riftbound team is much smaller than you'd think.

With such a small team, you have to wonder what other games the team looked to for guidance. Resource systems, which are costs you'll typically pay to play or activate cards, are present in most TCGs. Guskin, who worked previously as a designer on Magic: The Gathering (and is also a big fan of the game), took inspiration from that game's mana system.

"[I'm] a big fan of Magic's [mana system]," he explains. "I actually thought, 'Okay, we're going to start with the resources in the deck. That's the appropriate amount of variance for game variety.' We tried it with players and they completely rejected it. They were like, 'This is horrible. I don't want to not play this game.'"

"So then I was like, 'Well, I'm not the right person to design this resource system,'" Guskin continued. "I recruited my two designers, Dave and Jon, who had joined shortly after the start, [and said], 'You've got to find a better resource system.' They tried like 10 or 12 different systems. Then they found one they liked, brought it to me, and were like, 'Okay, you're going to hate this,'" referring to Riftbound's Rune resource system.

"[They told me,] 'So what you do is you get rid of your own resources,'" Guskin explained. "And I was like, 'I hate it'. They're like, 'No, no, you've got to play it.' And as you saw, when you actually play it, you're like, 'Wow, this is actually pretty cool.' So that was all them--they were amazing at making that system. And now it's one of the things that TCG players of other games say they like the most about Riftbound."

In Riftbound, Runes operate similarly to Magic's lands in that you'll "tap" them (or exhaust, in this case) to pay a cards cost. But cards in Riftbound will often have two costs: Power and Energy. The Energy cost is represented by the top-most, colorless number in the upper left corner of a card, while the Power cost--which is also locationed in the upper left corner of the card but below Energy--is tied to one of Riftbound's six Domains (think Magic's colors). To pay a Power cost, you have to recycle a Rune of that Domain, which means placing it on the bottom of your 12-card Rune deck, referencing the two designers' "get rid of your own resources" pitch to Guskin.

Riftbound is nearing its one year mark since its English release, with its fourth expansion Vendetta having recently hit store shelves. This week also marks the game's biannual State of the Game updates, which details changes coming to organized play, upcoming products, and next year's roadmap.

Life is expensive these days. If you're looking to cut back on spending and want to do away with your PlayStation Plus membership, it's very easy to do so.

There are plenty of reasons why you might want to cancel PlayStation Plus, just like there are numerous reasons for cancelling Xbox Game Pass. Below you can find instructions on how to cancel PlayStation Plus, as shared by PlayStation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiwBu7M023s How to cancel PlayStation Plus from the internet

• Sign in to Account Management.
• Select Subscription from the menu on the left of the screen. 
• Select Cancel Subscription next to PlayStation Plus.

How to cancel PlayStation Plus from your PS5

• Go to Settings > Users and Accounts.
• Select Account > Payment and Subscriptions > Subscriptions > PlayStation Plus.
• Select Cancel Subscription.

How to cancel PlayStation Plus from your PS4

• Go to PlayStation Plus > Manage Membership > Subscription.
• Select Cancel Subscription.

When you cancel PlayStation Plus, you'll retain member benefits until the end of the current billing cycle. However, after that, you'll lose access to the service's numerous perks including monthly games, online multiplayer, and online storage support, among other things.

August brings with it some pretty great additions to PlayStation Plus, including the critical darling Big Walk--which we called one of the best co-op games of all time--along with Dying Light 2 and Signalis.

Sony recently upset gamers by announcing that it will stop supporting physical game discs starting in January 2028. The data clearly shows that digital adoption is rising, but plenty of people still love physical discs. Sony continues to sell many millions of physical game discs annually, but experts believe Sony wants to exert more power and control over users and is ushering in an all-digital future on PlayStation leading into the PS6 era.

During last week's Gen Con, Riftbound, the League of Legends trading card game (TCG), boasted a massive presence. Fans were able to enter two different booths to get their hands on cards and exclusive merchandise, as well as meet some of the talent behind the game's creation and design.

GameSpot was onsite for the show, and had the opportunity to interview Riftbound Game Director Dave Guskin, during which we learned that the team behind the popular TCG is significantly smaller that you might think. At the end of our time with Guskin, the longtime designer reflected on how the game isn't even a year old yet (referring to its English release in October of last year), saying, "It's been so wonderful to have the community grow around the game, and see what people love. I always say, our team is quite small compared to the player base. So we rely on that partnership between development and community to figure out what's awesome, what's not, and how to fix it".

GameSpot's Jessica Cogswell, who conducted the interview, was intrigued by his mention of the team size. She went on to ask Guskin just how big the team actually is, and if Riftbound's creation was a concentrated effort or a case of a few team members with big ambitions. Gurskin confirmed it was the latter.

"A little over two years ago, I want to say it was just me, my boss, and one analyst," Guskin said. "And we were just pitching the game to executives. We were like, 'Just give us a chance.' And they were like, 'Okay, you can have two more people.' So then we made the systems and we tested with players [with just five people]."

As development ramped up, Guskin explained that Riot allowed a few more people to join the Riftbound team. Since then, the number has consistently grown, reaching what now feels like "huge growth," according to Guskin.

"But it's still like less than 50 people across all functions of Riftbound, which is sort of crazy," he said.

"I think we'll keep growing, which is awesome, but we've come at it from a very scrappy place. Like, 'Can make something really awesome for players, do it quickly, and do it without really having to do too much in the way of shooting for the moon, right?'" Guskin continued. "'Let's find something that we know players will love. Let's take stuff from Legends of Runeterra, from other strategy games at Riot, from the people who know how to make League of Legends champions in a different sort of game, and then get that out to players quickly, and then iterate.' So, I feel like it's been pretty crazy".

Riftbound recently released its fourth expansion, Vendetta. Its biannual State of the Game updates are also continuing to roll out until August 5, in which they've laid out changes coming to the game's rules and card templates, its roadmap for 2027, and more.

After launching in English late last year, Riftbound, Riot Games' League of Legends trading card game (TCG), has quickly grown into one of the most popular TCGs to date. The game had a big presence at this year's Gen Con, featuring not one but two large booths that fans could stop by to learn to play, meet some of their favorite creators, and buy convention-exclusive merch.

During the show, GameSpot had the opportunity to sit down with Riftbound game director Dave Guskin to chat about some of the game's history and where we go from here. Talking about League of Legend's massive roster, GameSpot's Jessica Cogswell was curious is if adding new Legends to Riftbound was an intimidating task when pulling from the source material's over 170-characters.

"No, it's so great! I love it," Guskin said. "I mean, the more things there are that players love and want to connect with, the better it is for us. I think for me, it's like, 'Man, how do we make sure we hit all of these so that the players who love a specific champion get to play that one.'' I think eventually we will hit all the champions in League of Legends. I think we'll probably revisit some, because we can find new ways to make a really cool Yasuo or a really cool Ahri that we didn't do before."

Revisiting older Champions in Riftbound is something the team has already done, with Master Yi making his second playable appearance in the TCG with the game's third set, Unleashed. That version of Master Yi sports the new XP mechanic that fans of League of Legends will be familiar with.

Guskin went on to discuss the team's process for selecting which characters will receive the cardboard treatment. When asked if they consider cards based on what people are playing the most in League of Legends, or if it's more centered around how well that character would work on as a card, he stated that both play a key role in the team's decision making.

"It's a combination of, 'People love this from League of Legends, the PC game. We should try to acknowledge that and see if we can build something that really feels right.' Like Zed, he's like constantly making shadow copies of himself, right? So we thought, let's make a deck, and see if that works. And it was like, 'Oh, that's great.'"

The team has a few fan-favorite Champions from League of Legends they want to add to Riftbound as soon as possible, Guskin confirmed, stating, "I don't want to give away too much, but I will say that there's some very popular champions we haven't done yet. I think there's like some cool relationships in the story that we can explore through sets. We just revealed--a couple days ago, I think--that our sixth set and our seventh set have a few champions that are beloved, like, Aurelion Sol."

For more Riftbound news, Riot is currently rolling out their second biannual State of the Game updates, detailing changes to come in the future, shifts in organized play, and giving us our first look at the set release roadmap for 2027.

The 2024 Borderlands movie had a cast full of big names, including multiple Oscar winners, and was based on a popular franchise with countless fans. But the film was a critical and commercial disaster. So what happened?

Director Eli Roth told Variety said that the film, which cost a mighty $120 million to produce, was pared back to something that did not line up with his original vision. He said he wants to make things that are "left of center" because this worked for him in the past. However, "As things grow bigger, studios just naturally become more risk averse," he said.

The report said studio executives wanted Borderlands to have a PG-13 rating, and asked for changes to get it. In the end, the finished version of Borderlands was "something that belonged to nobody," Roth said.

Cate Blanchett in Borderlands.

“It’s not a kids’ movie, but it’s trying to appeal to everybody. It’s for gamers, but it doesn’t have the violence the gamers want because it can’t be that extreme because it costs too much. You just wind up with a movie that’s neither fish nor fowl," he said.

Roth was not the only director on Borderlands, as Deadpool's Tim Miller came in for the reshoots.

The Borderlands movie starred Cate Blanchett as Lilith and Jack Black as the voice of Claptrap. The film also featured Kevin Hart (Roland), Edgar Ramirez (Atlas), Ariana Greenblatt (Tiny Tina), Florian Munteanu (Kreig), Janina Gavankar (Knoxx), Jamie Lee Curtis (Tannis), and Olivier Richters (Krom).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjtVXWa3tWI

Roth previously directed Cabin Fever, Hostel, and Knock Knock, while he starred in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. His latest movie is Ice Cream Man, which tells a story of an ice cream truck driver who comes to town, selling kids ice cream that turns them into murderers. The movie, which releases on August 7, is not getting good reviews, but he says it represents the kind of movie he wants to make, unobstructed from studio influence.

He raised the movie's $5.5 million budget and is releasing Ice Cream Man via his own production company, The Horror Section. He said the movie only needs to make about $6 million-$8 million theatrically to turn a profit, in part because he expects it to make about as much when it's released at home.

“Novelists who write stories own the underlying rights, but filmmakers who write a screenplay don’t own the underlying rights, and that always felt like an imbalance to me,” Roth said. “Stephen King owns all of his creations. Why should I create something and then give away ownership?”

Marvel Rivals has consistently expanded its roster ever since it went live, and for Season 9.5: The Mystery of Thebes, a sinister underworld figure is being added to the live-service game. Voiced by WWE star Damian Priest--AKA Luis Berrios--The Hood is bringing some demonic energy to Marvel Rivals and some Chainsaw Man vibes.

https://youtu.be/YMweqIzyB7s

Stepping into the Vanguard role, The Hood balances mobster energy with demonic powerhouse skills. He can easily switch between his human and demon forms, as he lays down suppressing fire with his pistols, summons protective shields, and lob orbs of dark magic that debuff enemies. But it's his Ultimate Ability that might make anime fans do a double-take, as when he fully transforms into a demon, The Hood looks like he just stepped out of the pages of the Chainsaw Man manga, as he has a strong resemblance to the Gun Devil from that series.

As a fully-realized Gun Demon, The Hood essentially becomes a walking arsenal of guns that can easily pierce through the defenses of enemies. Here's what he looks like after he has transformed:

The Hood's Gun Demon transformation

And here's what the Gun Devil looks like, from Chainsaw Man:

The Gun Devil from Chainsaw Man

That's a pretty strong comparison, but I'm guessing that Marvel Rivals developer NetEase is paying homage to Chainsaw Man, which is a hugely popular manga and anime series. Mercifully, The Hood isn't nearly as powerful as the Gun Devil when he's in this state, as the demonic entity was essentially a force of ballistic nature with its wide array of powers, instantly killing everything around him within a vast range. One of its infamous feats includes firing a bullet through the heart of every living being within 1,000 meters, if they were born within nine specific months of the year--anyone born in April, July, or October was safe from its wrath.

In addition to that anime influence, Marvel Rivals Summer Festival kicks off on August 13 and will see a brand-new wave of swimsuit special costumes and cosmetics added to the game. NetEase has also announced that Marvel Rivals will be taking up less space when Season 9.5 launches, as a massive texture compression overhaul will see the game shrink by up to 40GB on PC, and it'll be 15GB smaller on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.

Marvel Rivals Characters: Every Superhero And Supervillain Revealed So Far View Images

Ahead of its launch in September, Nintendo broadcast a new deep dive on Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave today. So far, it looks like tried-and-trusted Fire Emblem with its mix of turn-based strategy and character buildcrafting, but the biggest surprise was the reveal of the ultimate weapon class in the game--that's right, the new Fire Emblem is packing heat.

Always bring a gun to a swordfight.

While they aren't explicitly referred to as guns, the livestream did describe gauntlets as weapons that "look like firearms" when you equip them. They certainly do have more firepower as well, as the brief snippet of footage showing one of these in action revealed a weapon capable of firing off lightning-empowered rounds. Are there concealed carry laws in the Dagdan Empire regarding gauntlets? These are the questions we're dying to know the answer to.

https://youtu.be/_RaZiSBaJfU

Normally, Fire Emblem games have focused on a mix of medieval weaponry and magic, with each weapon class being effective against certain types of classes and ineffective against others. This has created a delicate balance over the years, and that gameplay system has been retained for Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave. Archers are still a flying unit's worst nightmare, axe-wielding troops are slow but powerful, and mages are glass cannons in combat.

Other interesting details from the livestream include a story that focuses on multiple characters, who players can switch between at any time, and the reveal that the story doesn't stop after you win the tournament that these champions are competing in. It looks like the narrative kicks off properly several years after the contest ends.

Fortunately, you won't have to wait too much longer to play the new Fire Emblem, as it launches on September 17 for Switch 2.

Xbox Game Pass giveth, and it taketh away in August. Fortunately, not too many games are going to be exiting the subscription service in the first half of August, as only four titles are on their way out on August 15.

This month, you can say goodbye to Menace--which was available via Game Preview on PC,--Atlas Fallen, Aliens: Fireteam Elite, and Firewatch. As a reminder, Game Pass subscribers can save 20% on these titles before they leave, so if you like what you've been playing, this is a little bit of a silver lining. Aliens: Fireteam Elite fans will also want to keep an eye out for the sequel to the gung-ho action game, which launches on August 25.

Game Pass removals for August 15

• Menace via Game Preview (PC)
• Atlas Fallen (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Aliens: Fireteam Elite (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Firewatch (Cloud, Console, and PC)

There are usually two waves of removals every month with Xbox Game Pass, and July was a pretty big one. Last month saw a grand total of 20 games exit Game Pass--11 games in the first wave, and eight in the second--with several big names like Celeste, Whiskerwood, Sniper Elite: Resistance, and Crusader Kings 3 amongst the departures.

The good news is that several replacements are on the way, with August's first wave including Beast of Reincarnation as a headline act, while Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can try out Gears of War: E-Day early with the beta that starts on August 6.

For more recommendations, you can also check out GameSpot’s rundown of the best Xbox Game Pass games.

The Best Xbox Game Pass Games In 2026 View Images

In June, Netflix released an officially licensed FIFA World Cup game, and while it was not a critical success, Netflix management later singled it out as a successful release. Now, however, the studio behind the game, Refactor Games, has enacted a round of mass layoffs affecting the majority of the studio.

Cofounder Nathan Burba told GamesBeat that the studio has laid off 85% off its staff. This amounted to about 80 people, according to Insider Gaming. The studio's co-owner, Delphi Interactive, was said to have pulled funding after the launch of the game in June.

Affected developers were reportedly notified on Friday, July 31. The laid-off developers reportedly received no severance pay, though the last day was a payday.

Netflix continues to grow its games business.

The Netflix FIFA game, which is called FIFA World Cup Launch Edition, allows people to play on their TV or computer with up to four people. The game features all 48 teams, 1,238 players, and 16 stadiums from the tournament.

The game received poor review scores, with VGC saying it's a "woefully undercooked companion" to the World Cup.

During Netflix's latest earnings call, management said FIFA World Cup Launch Edition and the horror game Unhinged were two of company's "most successful" launches ever for cloud games on TV. Netflix did not share any specific datapoints that speak to their success, however.

Despite some initial stumbles, Netflix remains interested and invested in the gaming space for the long term, seeing it as a major growth-driver. Recently, Netflix reported that some of its gaming efforts have grown by 600%, while also informing investors that it's still early days.