Next year could be a grim one for Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, as console sales are expected to dramatically decline in 2027 by almost 20%. Thanks to component shortages, video game consoles like the Switch 2, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S have only gotten more expensive over time--a complete reversal of how systems used to get cheaper the longer they were on the market.

According to a report from S&P Global Market Intelligence Kagan (via GamesIndustry.Biz), the math is simple: more expensive machines, fewer consumers able to buy them. The firm is predicting that console shipments will fall to about 27.1 million units by 2027, but it could recover to 37.4 million units by 2030 if the component crisis begins to stabilize by 2028. This would allow Sony and Microsoft to release their next-gen consoles--the PS6 and Project Helix, respectively--and S&P Global Market Intelligence analyst Neil Barbour projected that the consoles will sell for between $600 and $800 each.

"For now, the market faces a compounding problem: hardware that is either too old or too expensive for the median consumer, a software slate that is thin outside a handful of tentpole releases, and a macro environment that keeps any meaningful price relief off the table," Barbour said to GamesIndustry.Biz.

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For the Switch 2, S&P has forecast that it'll sell 17.1 million units in 2026, while Nintendo's own expectations have sales pegged at 16.5 million units sold in the console's second fiscal year. That would make for a decline of 16.9% compared to its launch year, but it's not just the looming $50 price hike in September contributing to this. S&P believes that the lack of a killer game for 2026 is hindering Switch 2 sales, although the launch of Pokemon Winds and Waves in 2027 could see a spike in sales. Nintendo is also rumored to be exploring an OLED version of the Switch 2, but the potential price for it is said to be a topic of concern at the company.

As for the PS5, recent price hikes haven't helped the console improve its recent sales, either. S&P's forecast is a 15.2% decrease year-on-year, with Sony likely shipping 13.2 million units in 2026--a big drop compared to how Sony shipped 17.1 million PS5s in 2025.

Xbox could be hardest hit, as the outlook doesn't look positive for the Microsoft gaming division. S&P says that Microsoft shipped 3.2 million Xbox Series X|S consoles last year--a figure that Microsoft has never publicly revealed, as it's notoriously cagey with sales numbers--and that was the lowest annual total to date. S&P predicts 2.5 million Xbox Series X|S units will be sold in 2026, followed by "a rapid wind-down toward zero" as it prepares for a next-gen console launch.

With Project Helix expected to be expensive due to its ability to support both console and PC marketplaces, S&P has forecast launch-year sales of 2 million units, reaching roughly 7.3 million units by 2030.

Barbour added that the sales outcome could look different, and that S&P is "splitting the difference" between a traditional Xbox console successor and a living-room PC that has been given an Xbox certification. That 2028 launch year for next-gen consoles is looking more solid--although anything can change in these turbulent times--as court documents and statements have the expected starting period of the next generation of consoles penciled in for 2028.

The Witcher 3 director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz has commented on the state of next-generation consoles, saying his studio Rebel Wolves wouldn't be too upset if the PlayStation 6 and next-gen Xbox get delayed due to the ongoing memory and component crises.

"To be honest, it's even better for us," Tomaszkiewicz told Eurogamer about how he would feel if next-gen consoles get delayed. He's currently working on the vampire game The Blood of Dawnwalker, which releases in September across console and PC.

He went on to say a new platform comes with new challenges that developers need to spend time working on and learning. "You need to know what are your borders, what you can do, what you cannot do. And also it's an additional build you need to create that you need to take care of later," he explained.

The Blood of Dawnwalker releases in September.

Currently, Rebel Wolves has four different builds of its current game, The Blood of Dawnwalker--Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and two for PC due to regional restrictions. If The Blood of Dawnwalker is a success and Rebel Wolves wants to bring it to whatever new systems are coming, the amount of work required would be multiplied, Tomaszkiewicz said.

"It sounds easy but you need to know that there is a group of testers who need to test every platform separately--not only this particular change but whether the whole game has no blockers, if you can finish it from the beginning to the end, and so on and so on. It's a huge effort, to be honest," he said.

As for the benefits of coming to a new, more powerful platform, Tomaszkiewicz said improvements would be "mostly visuals" thanks to having more RAM and a better processor.

To be sure, Sony has not officially announced the next PlayStation console, but the company has spoken at a high level about its plans. Microsoft has been speaking openly about Project Helix for some time. Recently, Xbox's chief strategy officer Matthew Ball said Microsoft is committed to releasing Project Helix, but the company is going to "rethink everything" about it.

It remains to be seen what that means. Due in part to the AI-fueled demand for memory and components, hardware prices on game consoles have gone up in recent years. Sony and Microsoft already raised prices on the PlayStation and Xbox consoles, while Nintendo is hiking the price of the Switch 2 in September.

Some are theorizing that, should current trends continue, the price of new consoles in the future could be $1,000 or more, and that's a real bummer. With the prices of new consoles expected to be the highest ever, that may help explain why Sony is killing of discs in 2028. If companies like Sony and Microsoft are going to sell fewer consoles in the future, as data suggests, then shifting to an all-digital world helps improve margins to mitigate the impact of fewer hardware sales.

The creator of Assassin's Creed has a new game on the horizon, a supernatural blend of dark fantasy and witchcraft by the name of 1666: Amsterdam. Having been in development for 16 years--development on it originally began in 2011 at THQ before it went bust--the game got a re-reveal during Summer Game Fest 2026. One area where the game is aiming to stand apart from the pack is with its art direction, and in a new dev diary, developer Panache Digital Games provided a behind-the-scenes look at the artistic vision powering the mystery and witchcraft of this title.

Set across three time periods--the late 17th century, 1999, and the modern day--creative director Patrice Désilets and the Panache team drew inspiration from the Dutch Golden Age of art to shape the look and feel of the game. The process included translating paintings into interactive environments, replicating the distinct aesthetics of those painters to create the game world. Art nerds will immediately recognize the influence of painters like Johannes Vermeer and Adriaen van Ostade in the game's setting, and as Désilets explained, this approach allowed the team to recreate Amsterdam both accurately and expressively due to how artists of the time captured everyday life on canvas.

https://youtu.be/6GPWe3EU1uc

"I really love art in general, not just from the 17th century. There's something in those artists, that era, that place, that is very powerful. It was among the first--not the very first--but still, who painted ordinary people from the street," Désilets said, likening the paintings to photographs of the era.

While the first part of the game draws from the great masters of the time, the second part, set in 1999, uses the Giallo era of slasher movies from the 1960s for inspiration, something which is the complete opposite of 17th-century Dutch art with dark contrasts and primary colors. Finally, the modern-day sections are set in a library, and artistic director Nicolas Cantin described the look of these scenes as sober and cinematic.

1666: Amsterdam isn't the first game to look to the past to create a unique art direction, as last year's smash-hit Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 featured an art direction born from French Belle Époque art. At the same time, 1666: Amsterdam did catch some flak following the release of its playable prologue on Steam, as players noticed that generative AI had been used for in-game art and assets. In a statement, Panache Digital promised that these would be removed and replaced with work produced by real human artists in the game's full release. 1666: Amsterdam will launch in early access later on Steam and the Epic Games Store.

From the moment the current Nintendo Switch 2 launched with its LCD screen there have been questions around whether or not Nintendo would release an OLED version in the future. It's the strategy it followed with the original Switch to great success, but could still be a while away for its follow-up.

According to a report by ZDNet Korea (via Digital Foundry), Nintendo could be looking at an upcoming 1080p OLED panel from Samsung Display as an option for the potential Switch 2 OLED. The concern currently, according to the report, is not with the hardware itself, but the potential premium the upgrade would demand, and whether consumers will be willing to purchase an even more expensive console in today's memory-strapped market.

Nintendo has already announced plans to increase the price of the current LCD Nintendo Switch 2, and there's no guarantee that it won't have to hike the price further in the near future. That makes a potential Switch 2 OLED releasing in 2028 at the earliest a difficult product to predict, and even tricker to try and price before development kicks off by the end of this year.

An OLED panel would present a big upgrade over the current LCD panel, which is ill-equipped for the Switch 2's more capable hardware. Its HDR capabilities are sorely lacking, and its distractingly-bad motion clarity has been a sore point for many users, especially those migrating over from the inky blacks and smooth response times of the older Nintendo Switch OLED.

While 2028 is far away, Nintendo is planning to launch a new version of the Switch 2 in the European Union soon, which will feature a replaceable battery in order to comply with it latest consumer regulations. As a result, it will also discontinue the original Switch in the region.

Actor Barry Sloane is known for playing Captain Price in the new Call of Duty games, but he does more than that. He showed up in the newest episode of the Game of Thrones TV show House of the Dragon as Ser Adrian Redfort, and many viewers didn't know he was in the show and were surprised to see him appear.

Both Captain Price and Ser Adrian Redfort have mustaches, and the Call of Duty account played this up. "The mustache transcends timelines," it wrote.

https://twitter.com/CallofDuty/status/2076801422289678453

Sloane was cast in House of the Dragon in April 2025, making his debut in the July 11 episode of Season 3.

Sloane is coming back to play Captain Price again in this October's Modern Warfare 4, but the character is on a different journey. He's gone rogue following the events of 2023's MW3, and MW4 will show a "different version" of the character.

“A hunt for revenge draws Price toward a weapon powerful enough to shift the balance of power, setting in motion a conflict far greater than he ever anticipated,” the game’s description continues. “Forced into uneasy alliances and illicit operations, Price is pulled deeper into consequences he can no longer escape.”

Captain Price was originally played by Billy Murray, who memorably portrayed the character first in 2007's beloved Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

The biannual Disney D23 expo is back in 2026, and amidst a stacked schedule of panels highlighting the films, TV series, and music of the company, there'll also be a closer look at Disney's video games. Running from August 14-16, Disney has teased an "exclusive preview" on the first day of the show, as the Disney Entertainment Showcase will feature games amongst announcements for movies, television, and live stage productions. 

Disney has dropped details on two of its games, confirming that there'll be a panel celebrating the 25th anniversary of Kingdom Hearts. With Kingdom Hearts 4 making a surprise appearance during last month's Nintendo Direct, this year's D23 could also be a prime opportunity to show off more of the Square Enix title that has spent years in development.

Disney Dreamlight Valley will get a panel as well, with the developers behind the cozy fantasy life-sim celebrating its run and offering a sneak peek at new content.

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While we don't know what else we can expect, it wouldn't be too surprising to see a few Star Wars games in the spotlight, either. Two of the games are out soon, starting with the tactical-RPG Star Wars: Zero Company on August 27, while the high-speed Star Wars: Galactic Racer shifts into an October 6 launch date. Beyond that, other projects from a galaxy far, far away include Star Wars Jedi 3 from Respawn Entertainment, Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic, Saber Interactive's Knights of the Old Republic remake, and Star Wars Eclipse from Detroit: Become Human developer Quantic Dream--a game whose fate is looking increasingly uncertain.

On the Marvel side, Insomniac's Wolverine game is out in September, but given the family-friendly nature of D23, we're not expecting to see Logan eviscerate an army of cyborgs in front of a young audience. The game will have a presence later this month at San Diego Comic-Con, alongside Arc System Works' new fighting game, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls.

Activision has announced that the leaderboards and combat records for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022) and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023) are being "permanently disabled" ahead of Modern Warfare 4's release in October.

Activision said it's doing this "as we optimize backend services" in the lead-up to MW4's launch. The announcement upset and bewildered fans.

Some are wondering how things like leaderboards and combat records for older games are related to providing services for new games. Other people replied to Activision's post with the "no correlation" SpongeBob Squarepants meme. Still others questioned why they would buy into a new game, in this case MW4, if one day their hard-earned statistics would vanish out of the blue.

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People on Reddit said they were not surprised by this decision, as they reported that the in-game leaderboards and combat records for those games have been broken for years anyway.

Activision has not provided a detailed explanation as to why this is happening apart from the line about optimizing backend services ahead of MW4's release. GameSpot has contacted Activision in an attempt to get more information.t

Infinity Ward was involved in all three games, having led development on 2022's MW2 and having assisted Sledgehammer Games with 2023's MW3. For this year's Modern Warfare 4, Infinity Ward is the lead developer, but it's also getting help from Activision's network of studios, which is common for Call of Duty releases.

MW4 launches on October 23, which is about a month before GTA 6 launches on November 19.

Dying Light: The Beast was released last year for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, with developer Techland promising a last-gen version of the game as well. That's no longer the case, as the studio says it has made the "difficult decision" to cancel the PS4 and Xbox One versions, due to the game's visuals being too advanced for those systems to handle.

"Dying Light: The Beast was built from the ground up to take full advantage of current-generation hardware," Techland said in a statement. "Its open world, advanced visuals, and fluid combat and traversal all depend on processing power and memory that previous-generation consoles simply cannot provide."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ17PvGRgF0

Techland added that while development progressed on the last-gen versions, it came to the conclusion that the games would need to be technically compromised in a way that impacted the experience the studio sought to offer players. The developer added that it wasn't a matter of leaving those older platforms behind, but that they could not keep up with the demands of the game. Anyone who was expecting to play Dying Light: The Beast on PS4 or Xbox One and preordered the game will be eligible for a refund.

Dying Light: The Beast isn't the only game to pull the plug on a last-gen release. The last few years have seen numerous titles focus purely on current-gen tech and PC, like Gotham Knights and Hogwarts Legacy, while Cyberpunk 2077's major updates and Phantom Liberty expansion skipped the older consoles as well--likely due to the game suffering from severe performance issues on those platforms.

The world of Dying Light: The Beast expanded with a free update back in March that put much more emphasis on survival. The new mode allowed players to permanently clear out zombies from zones and repopulate them with people, but the catch with the Restored Land update was that supplies would be harder to find due to them no longer respawning, containers weren't as plentiful with goodies, and shops would charge a premium for their stock.

"Techland's expansion turned standalone sequel winds up being the most enjoyable Dying Light so far, because it dials back the power fantasy," Mark Delaney wrote in GameSpot's Dying Light: The Beast review.

As Criterion focuses on Battlefield moving forward, Battlefield Studios Europe's vice president and general manager, Rebecka Coutaz, has confirmed that the Need for Speed and Burnout franchises are not the focus of the company anymore.

"We're not here to talk about the past," she said during a celebration of Criterion's 30th anniversary (via IGN). When directly asked whether the studio is focusing on any other projects, Coutaz said, "We are solely focused on Battlefield."

Criterion took over developing the Need for Speed games beginning with 2010's Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, a reboot of 1998's Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit. It was also responsible for Need for Speed Rivals and 2022's Need for Speed Unbound. The studio also developed the Burnout franchise between 2001 and 2018, which raises doubts that the series will ever make a return, either.

With Courtaz confirming that Criterion's focus is now on Battlefield, she acknowledged some of the studio's strengths that came from the Burnout and Need for Speed games. "Yes, it used to be cars and less guns. But it's the overall player experience that we are sharing with the same intensity," she said. "The intensity, the cinematic view, the instant reward moment that our players love on Battlefield, those are really the strengths of Criterion."

As Criterion puts all of its resources into Battlefield, it's easier to get cosmetics you might have missed. It's a small improvement, but one of the more meaningful updates was rolled back due to "a mistake."

Paramount Skydance's plan to take over Warner Bros. Discovery is facing a new hurdle, as several states are suing the company to prevent the proposed $111 billion acquisition. In total, 12 state attorneys have formed a coalition to stop the merger, citing that it'll be a violation of the a violation of the Clayton Act antitrust law that was designed to block monopolies from forming.

"There is no debate here: This merger will snuff out competition, drive up prices, diminish content quality, and produce fewer movies and shows each year," California Attorney General Rob Bonta said (via THR). Alongside California, the lawsuit also includes state attorneys from Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Washington.

In response, Paramount Skydance claims that the lawsuit represents a "fundamentally flawed application" of antitrust laws, and it still maintains that the merger will allow it to better compete with entertainment giants like Netflix. The streaming giant had originally intended to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery, but intense lobbying by Paramount and the offer of a higher purchase price to shareholders eventually saw Netflix pull out from the deal.

The states have also argued that the movie market will be disrupted, as Paramount will potentially control more than 30% of the movies hitting theaters. This could result in cinemas having to make changes that will harm their bottom line, like caps on discounts, less investment in improving their facilities, and being forced to raise ticket prices if Paramount Skydance decides to charge a larger fee for their films.

"Movie theatres rely on competition between Paramount and Warner Bros," the complaint from the states reads. "Through this competition, theatres incentivize creativity and quality, and they secure competitive prices and terms for themselves and for audiences."

While Paramount Skydance stands to gain valuable film IP, film studios, sports properties, and television networks from the deal, it'll also become the owner of Warner Bros. Games. This will give it access to various franchises and studios, like Hogwarts Legacy developer Portkey Games, Mortal Kombat studio NetherRealm Games, and much more. Paramount CEO David Ellison is a noted gamer, and the company is already involved in gaming projects like the upcoming Call of Duty movie.

Recently, Paramount Skydance announced a new in-house game development studio, Paramount Games Studio, and some of its upcoming projects include Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra and a Star Trek horror game with Silent Hill 2 remake developer Bloober Team.

Paramount Could Own All These Warner Bros. Game Studios Soon View Images