Kickstarter disappointments and disasters are not uncommon in the realm of videogames--and sometimes, even when a campaign is successful and a game is released, there will still be issues with fulfilling backer promises like physical goodies and stretch goals. One such campaign experiencing these woes is Chained Echoes, a 16-bit style RPG that has received excellent reviews and a generally positive player reception. By all metrics, this game would easily go down as a Kickstarter success story--if it wasn't for backers who purchased a physical copy of the game not getting what they bought after years of delay.

Creator Matthias Linda partnered with German limited-edition publisher First Press Games to create physical copies of Chained Echoes for for PC, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch. While certain tiers of the Kickstarter were promised physical goodies like an artbook related to the game--which Linda sent out himself--the editions by First Press were their own thing that backers could purchase as an add-on to their pledge. Non-backers could also buy directly from the First Press Games store. As of the time of writing, the order page for Chained Echoes on First Press Games's website is still live, with most products listed as "preorder" and editions costing anywhere from $50 USD for a basic PC/PS4/Switch edition to $354 USD for a massive collectors' edition box.

Despite preorders having gone live in November of 2022, however, all but the basic PlayStation 4 edition of the game have yet to be shipped to backers and buyers, with complaints abound and little explanation for the lengthy delay. Buyers have become incredibly frustrated--and so has Linda, who today announced that he is planning to file a lawsuit against First Press Games and will be offering refunds to backers who bought the physical version.

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AMD has enjoyed being the preferred CPU vendor for the majority of gaming PCs for sometime now, but Intel's latest refreshed chips are aiming to claw back some market share through competitive performance and aggressive pricing.

Intel has introduced two new CPUs into its Arrow Lake family, with the refreshed chips marking the debut of the Core Ultra 200S Plus series. First is the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus (including a KF variant without onboard graphics), which includes 18 total cores, divided into eight performance cores and 12 efficiency cores. This, along with a boost clock of 5.3GHz, puts it within spitting distance of the previous Core Ultra 7 265K, albeit with two fewer performance cores.

The second is likely the one that Intel is hoping will become a strong gaming choice. The Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, which includes a total of 24 cores divided into 8 performance cores and 16 efficiency cores, with a boost clock of 5.5GHz. That's identical to Intel's previous flagship, the Core Ultra 9 285K, for a fraction of the price.

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Every iteration after the original Xbox has supported backwards compatibility to some degree. At GDC, Microsoft touted its commitment to "keeping games from four generations of Xbox playable for years to come." Towards that end, Microsoft teased "new ways to play" some of the system's iconic games later this year for Xbox's 25th anniversary.

During Microsoft's keynote presentation, vice president of next generation Jason Ronald said, "The game preservation team has been working very hard in the background for a number of years." He added that the team has chosen "some iconic games from the past that are now going to be able to be played in entirely new ways. This shows our commitment to game preservation, and enabling these games to be played by the next generation of players, in ways that are very familiar to them."

Neither Ronald nor Microsoft elaborated on what those "new ways to play" will be, but a remaster of Halo and a new Gears of War game are both slated to be released this year. Those are two of the flagship franchises on Xbox, but the company could potentially dive even further into its back catalogue for more neglected titles that haven't had the same kind of spotlight in the last 25 years. Microsoft announced the formation of a games preservation team in 2024 that is focused on continuing the tradition of Xbox's backwards compatibility.

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Kirby Air Riders King Dedede & Tank Star Amiibo

$55 | Releases July 2

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Kirby Air Riders was released for Switch 2 last November, and it hit the market alongside Amiibo for Kirby and Waddle Dee. And on July 2, you'll be able to get your hands on the highly anticipated King Dedede & Tank Star Amiibo. Preorders are now open for the product--though you might be surprised to see it priced at $55 (making it the most expensive Amiibo to date).

Kirby Air Riders King Dedede & Tank Star Amiibo $55 | Releases July 2

You can reserve the King Dedede & Tank Star Amiibo at Amazon, Best Buy, or GameStop. All three retailers list the figure for $55, which is $5 more than the Kirby Air Riders Amiibo launched at the end of 2025 (which were already far more expensive than standard Amiibo from previous lines). You'll get the same functionality as those the other Air Riders Amiibo, allowing you to scan King Dedede & Tank Star to train and level up your Figure Player, or swap around the figure and vehicle with other Amiibo in the set.

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King Dedede will join the existing Kirby Air Riders Amiibo lineup, which includes Kirby, Waddle Dee, and Meta Knight. We'll also be getting Sword Kirby and Noir Dedede at some point in the future, though Nintendo has yet to announce an official release date.

Kirby Air Riders Amiibo

• Kirby & Warp Star -- $50
• Bandana Waddle Dee & Winged Star -- $50
• Meta Knight & Shadow Star -- $45
• King Dedede & Tank Star -- $55 | Releases July 2

Kirby Air Riders Amiibo Dual Packs

Kirby & Warp Star / Bandana Waddle Dee & Winged Star

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As for the game these figures are compatible with, Kirby Air Riders, you'll find physical copies at Amazon for $69. It hasn't seen any meaningful discounts since it launched in 2025--not even a price cut for Mario Day. However, plenty of other great Switch and Switch 2 games are part of the event, so if you're looking to stock up on iconic Nintendo games for cheap, head over to our official Mario Day Deals roundup.

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Valve has stayed silent since New York Attorney General Letitia James brought a lawsuit against the company at the end of February, claiming its loot box mechanics allow "children and adults to illegally gamble for the chance to win valuable virtual prizes." But today, the company finally broke its silence, publicly addressing the lawsuit via a lengthy post on Steam.

"You may have seen the New York Attorney General recently filed a lawsuit against Valve claiming mystery boxes (like crates, cases, and chests) in some of our games violate New York gambling laws," Valve wrote in the post, which was aimed at players of Dota 2, Counter-Strike 2, and Team Fortress 2. "We don't believe that they do, and were disappointed to see the NYAG make that claim after working to educate them about our virtual items and mystery boxes since they first reached out to us in early 2023. We rarely talk about litigation, but we felt we should explain the situation to you."

Valve says it has explained to the New York Attorney General that loot boxes are widely used in gaming, and compared its loot boxes to collectible baseball cards, Labubu blind boxes, and Pokemon trading card packs. It also noted that players don't have to open loot boxes to play Valve games.

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A new Fallout game, which might have been in development at a Microsoft-owned studio, is not likely to release anymore, according to former GameSpot and Giant Bomb journalist Jeff Gerstmann.

Gerstmann commented on the Fallout game during an episode of The Jeff Gerstmann Show, saying that he was aware of a new Fallout project in development that he thinks is unlikely to ever be released. "There was a Fallout thing in development at another Microsoft-owned studio that I think is no longer going to see the light of day," Gerstmann stated.

The size, scope, and general direction of this Fallout game was not disclosed, so it's difficult to gauge whether Gerstmann was aware of a sequel to Fallout 4 or a smaller project such as Fallout Shelter. Regardless, whatever project is being spoken about here hasn't been officially announced by Bethesda, which have yet to formally reveal a new project in the franchise since Microsoft's acquisition and the release of Fallout on Amazon Prime.

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Season 2 Reloaded is live in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, bringing the brand-new Paradox Junction map to Zombies mode. This is a traditional round-based map set on Treyarch's iconic Nuketown map. In this guide, we'll explain how to use the truck keys, move the destroyed truck, and disrupt the temporal storm to reach the Pack-a-Punch machine on Paradox Junction.

Normally, Black Ops 7's Zombies maps hold your hand and guide you through unlocking the first few quest steps and reaching the Pack-a-Punch machine. This guidance works differently for Paradox Junction, as the quest markers seemingly disappear and leave you with a task you can't complete.

Paradox Junction's first objective marker leads you through a door behind the yellow house, and it guides you to a dead body with a set of keys. Picking up the keys then tasks you with a new objective: Move the destroyed truck by jumping to the past.

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Today at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Microsoft held a panel discussion during which Xbox next-gen VP Jason Ronald shared new insight into the company's plans for the future of the platform, including the recently announced Project Helix console/PC platform.

Xbox executive Jason Ronald announced that alpha versions of Project Helix devkits will begin to go out to developers in 2027. Devkits are early versions of new consoles that developers often get access to prior to launch so they can starting building games for the final system.

"We're continuing to push innovation for our next 25 years with our team hard at work on our next-generation first-party console: Project Helix is designed to play your Xbox console and PC games, delivering leading performance and ushering in the next generation of console gaming," Ronald said.

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Resident Evil Requiem can be fairly challenging on its higher difficulty levels--they don't call it Insanity Difficulty for nothing--but if you're looking to increase the challenge, then this mod will dial the challenge up to an armpit-moistening level. Some of the user-generated content for Resident Evil Requiem has focused on cheats, moustaches, and turning Leon's Porsche into a lawn chair, but the Bites Matter mod from Veoxys0910 will turn zombies into a proper pain in the neck.

Essentially, the mod makes it so that you really want to avoid being bitten by one of the infected. Once they sink their teeth into Leon or Grace, they'll be afflicted with a stack of infection that drains their health. The more stacks, the quicker their health falls, and the only way to delay their demise is by applying some green herbs.

While you can remove infection stacks, you can't cure it outright, and herbs will only buy you 30 minutes of relief. You can cure your infection by crafting a med injector, but this option requires you to enable it from the menu. If you feel like challenging yourself, you can grab this from Nexus Mods, and if you don't have the game yet, Fanatical has it on sale for $57.39 (was $70).

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Employees at 2K Games' Petaluma, California studio have formed the first-ever union for motion-capture performers in the US, called the RPG-IATSE (Rights & Protections for Games Workers arm of the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees). Employees initially voted to unionize back in November and have now unanimously ratified their first contract with parent company Take-Two Interactive.

The recently ratified contract guarantees workers a number of protections and benefits, including wage floor minimums and yearly increases, annual bonuses, protected benefits, a framework for promotions, preserved remote work policies, leave allowances, improved crediting for performances, and AI/likeness reproduction protections.

"This agreement shows what workers can achieve when they stand together and bargain for the future of their craft," IATSE international president Matthew D. Loeb said of the union's contract (via IATSE). "These workers made history when they organized, and they have made history again by ratifying the first union contract for motion capture video game workers in the United States."

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Hot on the heels of its GDC panel divulging some of the first details on its next-generation console, Project Helix, Microsoft has confirmed that the Xbox Full Screen Experience is set to launch on Windows 11 desktops in April.

In a blog post on Xbox Wire, Xbox's Vice President of Next Generation, Jason Ronald, confirmed that the gaming-optimized mode for Windows 11 will start appearing for users in select regions starting this April. The visual overhaul, which makes navigating Windows easier with a controller and provides some performance improvements, is now simply called Xbox Mode, after launching as Xbox Full Screen Experience on the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X late last year.

Xbox Mode not only makes it easier to use Windows as just a gaming device, with better controller navigation and an interface for living room gaming, but also cuts down on unnecessary background tasks that take up valuable RAM and processing resources that could be put to better use when running a game. The interface also attempts to unify all your gaming libraries, pulling in titles you've purchased on Steam, the Epic Games Store, and more and giving you one place to launch them all from. It's a similar approach to what Valve has done with SteamOS, albeit built using Windows instead of Linux.

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Lego enthusiasts can soon build and own the original PlayStation in brick form, according to a prolific leaker purporting that a Lego set based on Sony's first console is releasing at the end of 2026.

An Instagram user with the name lego_minecraft_goat, who has a history of leaking Lego sets, claimed in a post that a 1,911-piece PlayStation set including "at least the controller and the console" will be out this December, costing $160. The user captioned the post: "I hope I will exist tomorrow."

The PlayStation wouldn't be the first major video game console to receive the Lego treatment--Lego put out several Nintendo-themed sets starting in 2020, including a now-retired 2,646-piece NES set. Last year, Lego released a remarkably authentic 421-piece recreation of the original Game Boy.

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Nintendo's share price surged by 10% today after the release of Pokemon Pokopia, a charming and cozy game that has players rebuilding a desolate world into a utopia. Bloomberg was first to report on the uptick in Nintendo's share price on the Japanese stock market.

Nintendo's share price has been on a general downward trajectory since November of last year, so the uptick recently is good news for investors. However, Nintendo's share price remains down 2.3% over the past 12 months (but up more than 63% in the past five years).

Nintendo does not own the Pokemon IP or The Pokemon Company, but is heavily financially invested in the company. Nintendo is the publisher of Pokopia on Switch 2, so the game enjoying success might have the knock-on effect of driving people to buy a Switch 2.

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Jack Black's performance as Bowser in The Super Mario Bros. Movie was one of the highlights of the film, and he'll be reprising his role next month in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. And if Black has his way, he'll be returning for several Mario sequels as well.

"I was chomping [sic] at the bit [to come back]," Black told Fandango during a group interview with the cast. "Are you kidding me? To get back in here and party again with this group, with some new special surprises. And once again, I think it's a marvel to behold. It's just an explosion of color and fun and joy. I'm always down to party with Bowser in this universe. Hopefully, we'll be making several more."

During the same interview, Black noted that it was difficult to find Bowser's voice during the production of the first film. But he found the experience to be rewarding.

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Buying preowned games is an excellent way to save a few bucks. And while GameStop is always a good place to find used games, it's GameFly that's currently offering the most enticing deals. The retailer is currently discounting select pre-owned games on PS5 and Xbox Series X, letting you pick up recent titles like Borderlands 4 for $25, Ninja Gaiden 4 for $33, or Dragon Age: The Veilguard for $5. All games are tested and 100% guaranteed to work, and unless otherwise noted, they'll come with cases and possibly the original manual and other inserts (though DLC codes and other one-time use keys may no longer work).

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If you happen to be a GameFly member (starting at $13.50/month), you'll also unlock free shipping. Membership comes with other perks like a $5 coupon and the option to rent games, making it a solid choice for certain shoppers. A free 30-day trial is available if you're on the fence.

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Lots of games have been made into movies or have announced plans to become films, and now Facepunch's survival game Rust could join them. Alistair McFarlane, the director and COO of Facepunch, told PC Gamer that the studio has been "talking to people" about adapting Rust for a film.

However, it's still early days, and there is "nothing concrete" in the works as of yet. McFarlane did not name any potential partners outright but said "big-name companies" are in the mix.

No one should expect Facepunch to announce a Rust movie deal anytime soon, though, as McFarlane said Hollywood can move "very slow."

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Developer Josh Sobel has reactivated his social media account after originally shutting it down following criticism of his original comments about what happened with the free-to-play game. Sobel returned to social media to say his original post was a mistake, but he doubled down on how online discourse surrounding the game played a part in its ultimate failure. However, he acknowledged that while it may have played a role, online sentiment was not the primary cause for Highguard's failure.

Sobel said, "I believe the online discourse around Highguard had some very dark corners that may have accelerated the timeline of our failure beyond the natural outcome of reasonable critique, but it wasn't the primary cause, and I don't personally believe the ultimate outcome would have been thoroughly different without it."

He went on to say there were "a lot of elements involved" in what went wrong with Highguard, and there is "no way to know how it would have gone under different circumstances."

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Hellraiser's Cenobites are a force of sadomasochistic nature in the movies and books, but in Hellraiser: Revival, players will have a chance to stand their ground against the pleasure-seeking monsters. In a new developer diary--which has plenty of violent and sexual content, so consider yourselves warned--Saber Interactive revealed more about some of the tools that players will have at their disposal, including the Genesis Configuration. Since it's age-restricted, you'll need to watch it on YouTube.

While players will have access to guns and melee weapons, the Genesis Configuration allows them to wield iconic Cenobite powers in combat and exploration. Similar in design to the Lament Configuration and other puzzle boxes created by the toymaker Philip LeMarchand, the Genesis Configuration is essentially a Swiss Army Knife of agony in Hellraiser: Revival.

Some of the box's powers are teased in the video, like the ability to conjure up hooks out of thin air and then use them to rip enemies apart, using it as a flamethrower, or altering reality to progress through levels. As narrative director Antony De Fault noted, there have always been a variety of Configurations across the franchise and lore.

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The Save the World mode that started it all for Fortnite will be accessible for free to almost all players starting April 16, reversing a decision by Epic Games nearly six years ago.

Save the World is a PvE sandbox survival mode that pits four players against hordes of monsters. With Fortnite's building mechanics, the mode has often been billed as "Minecraft meets Left 4 Dead."

Save the World will remain playable on PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox One and Series X|S; previously accessible by purchasing a Starter Pack in the Fortnite Store (usually costing 1,500 V-Bucks), it'll be free-to-play on those platforms beginning April 16. It'll also be available for the Nintendo Switch 2 version, which wasn't the case when the Switch 2 port launched back in June. Mobile devices and the Switch 1 won't support the mode.

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A week after release, Marathon update 1.0.0.4 has gone live for Bungie's new extraction shooter game. The developer had previously indicated that it was looking to respond to player feedback with a variety of fixes and tweaks to the game, and this new patch introduces some substantial changes to Marathon's solo experience.

While the game is best experienced in a group, solo options do exist, and there's even a Runner shell--Rook--specialized for dropping into sessions all on your lonesome or when you want to stock up on supplies. With this patch, players using a Rook shell can expect to receive the same amount of bonus Faction reputation for exfiltrating that solo players receive, and an issue where the Rook’s position was not being displayed on the map screen has been resolved. To keep things balanced, Rook players will spawn with a compromised WSTR shotgun, which will require them to use a Matter Fixative during a run if they want to exfil with it.

Bungie has also reduced the health of most UESC enemies on the map, which it says is being done to alleviate some of the resource burden in both Solos and Crews when it comes to engaging these dangerous units in battle. "The goal here is to allow your bullets and meds to go further without reducing too much of the UESCs' bite," Bungie added. Other annoying bugs that have been patched include one where players could sometimes die instantly in confinement events, while various weapons have been adjusted.

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