Earlier this month, GameStop disclosed that it achieved the highest profit in the company's history during the first quarter of its latest fiscal year. Now, GameStop appears to be taking further steps to cut costs by reportedly making significant changes to its Pro Membership rewards program.

According to Kotaku, new GameStop Pro members will no longer be able to earn Pro Points starting on July 15. Current Pro members are only getting a temporary reprieve until August 15. On that date, members will stop accruing Pro Points.

Prior to these changes, GameStop Pro members could earn roughly 2% of their total purchases in points, which they could redeem for games or other merchandise at a later date.

On Reddit, some GameStop employees are calling out the decision to take away the Pro Points and suggesting that they should collectively stop trying to upsell Pro Membership to customers. Their apparent disdain for this decision probably won't deter GameStop from going ahead with these changes.

GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen has been in the news recently because of his intention to buy eBay even though his company lacks the resources or the full financial backing to purchase the online auction house. In response to Cohen's plans, eBay rejected his overture and described it as neither “credible nor attractive.” Cohen could still attempt a hostile takeover by appealing directly to eBay stockholders, but he has yet to do so.

Microsoft's potential options for the future of the Xbox brand reportedly include spinning it off into a separate company or operating as a "wholly owned subsidiary" rather than a division within Microsoft.

According to The Information (via Reuters), these are just a few of the options Microsoft is considering. Xbox has struggled mightily in recent years, most recently losing millions of subscribers to its Game Pass subscription service after a major price hike. Game Pass has, at least partially, seen improvement following a price cut that also removed new Call of Duty games from the library.

A spin-off would, on paper, make the Xbox brand free from the high-profit-margin expectations of Microsoft as a whole, though it would also no longer have access to the vast resources of such a large company.

The Information's report also said Microsoft is planning to increase investment in a few of Xbox's biggest franchises, including Halo, The Elder Scrolls, and Fallout, in order to speed up development, but just what that means remains unclear. The Elder Scrolls VI and Fallout 5 were both technically announced many years ago, with very few updates on either, while Halo: Campaign Evolved will serve as a stopgap of sorts when it launches next month--for the first time on PlayStation 5 in addition to Xbox and PC.

That PS5 release may be a one-off for Halo, however, as Microsoft looks to renew focus on console exclusives. Gears of War: E-Day, for instance, reportedly had a PS5 version in the works, but is no longer coming to the platform.

Last year, Ubisoft confirmed that it is developing a new Ghost Recon game, but a new report suggests that the project has been troubled and may face a "complete reboot or outright cancellation" if its problems can't be fixed.

Insider Gaming is reporting that the next Ghost Recon, which is internally known as Project OVR, failed to meet Ubisoft's objectives during a recent review. Unnamed sources blamed the failure on "unrealistic deadlines and poor planning and management." According to the report, Ubisoft rejected the alternative production plans proposed by Project OVR's directors.

In response to the failed review, Ubisoft is reportedly taking a more hands-on approach with Project OVR by bringing in additional executives to oversee the development. The report cites an internal memo that describes Project OVR as having a "strong" foundation, but that may not be enough to prevent the game's development from being halted or redirected to other projects. Insider Gaming notes that there have already been "silent layoffs" on the Project OVR team, with potentially more soon.

Earlier this week, Ubisoft reportedly shut down studios in Winnipeg and Belgrade whose titles included Rainbow Six Mobile, Far Cry 6, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and support for the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced.

During an investor disclosure in May, Ubisoft acknowledged a record €1.3 billion operating loss for its 2025-2026 fiscal year. However, it also touted a potential return to profitability in the 2027-28 and 2028-29 fiscal years because of upcoming titles, including Assassin's Creed Hexe, a new Far Cry, and the aforementioned Ghost Recon, which will potentially be a first-person shooter.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 will feature "campaign early access," allowing people who preorder or pre-buy the game to start playing the story mode early.

This applies to preorders and pre-purchases for the MW4 standard digital edition or the Vault edition, across Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, Switch 2, and Steam. The campaign early access begins on October 16, which is a full week before the game releases for everyone on October 23. During that week, only the game's campaign will be available; multiplayer unlocks on October 23.

Modern Warfare 4 releases in October.

Existence of the campaign early access for Modern Warfare 4 leaked already, so the announcement today is not a total surprise.

There is also precedent for it, as 2022's Modern Warfare 2 was the first game in the series to offer campaign early access. 2023's Modern Warfare 3 did as well, but 2024's Black Ops 6 did not, and neither did 2025's Black Ops 7.

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The Modern Warfare 4 campaign puts players into the shoes of Private Park, a young, inexperienced Korean soldier. He's played by Young Mazino, who is best known for his roles on Beef and The Last of Us.

For more, be sure to check out GameSpot's Modern Warfare 4 preorder guide.

Two more games are losing their online services, but the good news is that the server shutdowns aren't happening all that soon.

Delisted Games spotted notices from EA and 2K informing fans about forthcoming server closures. Grid Legends will lose its online service on PlayStation and Xbox consoles on September 11 this year, but servers will stay up for the game's Steam and Switch 2 editions.

Grid Legends is riding ... off into the sunset.

2K, meanwhile, announced that TopSpin 2K25's online support will go dark on December 31, 2027. 2K had previously said servers will close at the end of 2026, so players are getting an entire year more than expected.

2K said in its notice that supporting older titles while managing newer ones eventually becomes "commercially unfeasible." EA, for its part, said a similar thing, noting that, as player populations on older titles fall, "it's no longer feasible to continue the behind-the-scenes work" involved with operating them.

This all may be true, but anyone who is playing and enjoying Grid Legends and TopSkin 2K25 may not be thrilled by the shutdowns. In the case of TopSkin 2K25, that's the newest game in the series, so it's even more of a bummer.

Actor Ben Starr, known for his roles in Final Fantasy XVI, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and Hades 2, has revealed that he auditioned for the role of James Bond in 007: First Light. He didn't get the part, which ultimately went to Patrick Gibson, and Starr said he was "so f**king happy" to have not gotten the role.

"I never would have gotten it. I was terrible,” Starr told VGC. “I remember doing a self-tape for it. I did the GoldenEye scene, and I got recalled to meet the team.

“I was a couple of years into doing Final Fantasy at that point, and it hadn’t been released, so I was just a young actor who liked video games," he added.

Ben Starr.

Although Starr got a callback for the part, he said he "kind of crumbled under the pressure" and did not "deliver what they wanted."

"I’m so f**king happy I didn’t get anywhere near it, because my god, Patrick Gibson is so f**king good. He’s unbelievable,” Starr said.

First Light is expected to get a sequel, and we'd imagine that Gibson would come back for it. As for Starr, one of his upcoming projects is for the strategy game Stronghold 4.

Splitgate developer 1047 Games is back with Empulse, a new competitive shooter that, as GameSpot discovered, is to Titanfall 2 what Splitgate was to Halo. Jean-Luc got to go hands-on with the new shooter, which enters early access later this month.

Though it's heavily inspired by the Titanfall games, which should be pretty clear from the gameplay footage, it wasn't the sole source of inspiration for Empulse. Jean-Luc found the gunplay to feel closer to the Halo-y style of Splitgate than the ADS-heavy Titanfall, but the movement and grappling abilities, as well as the mechs (yes, this game has mechs) should be very familiar to fans of Respawn's masterpiece.

One big change from Titanfall 2 is the way you deal with those mechs if you're on the ground. There are no dedicated anti-mech guns here, but you do have access to a big ol' hammer that is very effective against them.

Rather than use a free-to-play model like Splitgate, Empulse is a $20 release, and 1047 is going with an old-school monetization approach--there will be no cash shop when the game launches in early access on June 24 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. A demo will be available via Steam Next Fest on June 15.

After months of speculation, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was unveiled for Switch 2 during this week's Nintendo Direct. It's the latest in a long line of remakes and remasters for Zelda 3D titles, but also raises the question: Why aren't there new versions of the franchise's first three mainline entries?

Nintendo has never remade The Legend of Zelda, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, or The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. These 2D classics for NES and SNES are what made people fall in love with the action-adventure series to begin with. They even feature gameplay features still seen today in the series, like puzzle-filled dungeons, pot breaking, and satisfying secrets to discover. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze-346WTsI0

Weirdly, the only 2D Zelda to get a proper remake is The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening on Switch. That's the fourth entry in the mainline franchise, and while a dark-horse favorite of fans, it doesn't have the same widespread acclaim as A Link to the Past. In fact, to this day, many still consider that SNES game as the pinnacle of the series. 

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past did get re-released on Game Boy Advance, with multiplayer-centric The Four Swords added on to the experience. That game's version of Hyrule was also remade in A Link Between Worlds--so maybe Nintendo considers that 3DS title to be a remake of sorts. 

But still, in a world where every 3D Zelda game has received the remake or remaster treatment (including Switch 2 Edition upgrades), it's a bit odd Nintendo hasn't given the same glow-ups to the original triforce of games in the franchise. Sure, I'd prefer new Zelda games over these, as someone who remembers playing A Link to the Past as a kid. But at the same time, those 2D classics deserve a second time in the spotlight.

Meanwhile, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time will see its second remake later this year on Switch 2 after previously getting a 3DS makeover in 2011. Nintendo withheld showing any gameplay in the reveal trailer, which hopefully signals bigger changes than just a visual overhaul.

Best Zelda Games, Ranked – Where Does Echoes of Wisdom Fall? View Images