The Lord of the Rings is one of the biggest and best-known entertainment franchises, but recent entries in the game series have left much to be desired. The series is continuing with at least one new game, an untitled open-world Middle-earth RPG from the developers of the popular Kingdom Come series. In this post, we're rounding up everything we know about the game. 

This post will be updated over time as more details come to light about the new Lord of the Rings game.

In This Article

• What is the new Lord of the Rings game?
• "Deeply immersive"
• When will the Lord of the Rings game be released?
• Fellowship Entertainment
• Recent struggles
• Renaissance for LOTR games
• What about the next LOTR movies?

What is the new Lord of the Rings game?

In May 2026, Warhorse Studios announced it was making a "Middle-earth RPG" that would be an open-world game (the company also announced a new Kingdom Come game at the same time). The developer did not use "The Lord of the Rings" branding, but Middle-earth and The Lord of the Rings are synonymous to many. 

The stories that J.R.R. Tolkien wrote, including his iconic The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit, exist within Middle-earth. This is the word for the whole world that Tolkien created. It's a vast mythology with numerous different locations to explore and characters to meet, not to mention the various different Ages of Middle-earth, so it will be intriguing to see where Warhorse's story takes place and if any familiar characters show up. 

The announcement was very light on details, while no imagery whatsoever was released, not even concept art or a mood piece. It's possible the game was revealed for the purposes of helping ramp up hiring, or to signal to Embracer's investors that more big games are coming to help improve confidence in the company and the stock.

"Deeply immersive"

During a community broadcast following the game's unveiling, Warhorse communications director Tobias Stolz-Zwilling said Warhorse has assembled a "mind-blowing team" to make the game, and that the game is aiming to be "deeply immersive." 

He also said the game will feature a "living world" populated by "interesting characters, memorable places, and of course a strong narrative focus." This does not tell us much of anything about the game, but it's a starting point to help understand where the game may be headed. We also know that Deliverance 2 design director Viktor Bocan is leading the development of the untitled Lord of the Rings game.

When will the Lord of the Rings game be released?

The game was only just revealed, but already we have an indication as to when the Lord of the Rings game may be released. Warhorse said its next Kingdom Come game is targeting a release during Embracer's next fiscal year (April 2027-March 2028), with The Lord of the Rings game following after. In short, it's what you probably already guessed: the game is not releasing soon. 

Fellowship Entertainment

As part of the announcement of the new Lord of the Rings game, Embracer confirmed that it will spin off a second unit, Fellowship Entertainment, which is described as an "IP-led entertainment company" focused on The Lord of the Rings, as well as Tomb Raider and "many other" owned IPs. Embracer said that creating Fellowship Entertainment and spinning it off will allow the standalone company to have a "better structure" to maximize its potential. 

To be sure, Fellowship Entertainment may carry a Middle-earth-inspired name, but it's much bigger than that. Companies under the Fellowship Entertainment banner include Middle-earth Enterprises, but also many of its subsidiaries, including 4A Games, Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montreal, Gunfire Games, and Warhorse itself. 

Recent struggles

The Lord of the Rings video games have not been very well received lately. 2023's The Lord of the Rings: Gollum was so poorly received that its developer canceled its next game and stopped making games entirely. 2025 saw the release of the cozy-looking Hobbit life-sim Tales of the Shire, but it was a critical miss as well. The game was delayed multiple times before launch, and Netflix backed out of a publishing deal for it. 

These misfires came after better-received games came from Monlolith Productions, including 2014's Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and 2017's Middle-earth. Shadow of Mordor was GameSpot's Game of the Year in 2014, and many other people and publications loved it.

Renaissance for LOTR games

After Embracer acquired Middle-earth Enterprises, the company said it was prototyping multiple new Lord of the Rings games, so the announcement of a game from an Embracer subsidiary, Warhorse, was not a complete shock. If Crystal Dynamics is making another Lord of the Rings game, that would track as well, given Embracer owns that studio and would have more favorable financial terms than working with an outside team. 

Before Embracer's comment about prototyping new Lord of the Rings game, the company's top Lord of the Rings boss, Lee Guinchard, said he wanted there to be a renaissance for Lord of the Rings games. After all, many may recall the heyday of licensed games in the early 2000s when there were games based on Peter Jackson's movie series and the Battle for Middle-earth franchise There were also Lego Lord of the Rings and Hobbit games that fans may fondly remember. 

What about the next LOTR movies?

Beyond Warhorse's new Lord of the Rings game, multiple new movies based on the series are in the works. The first to come is 2027's The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, which brings back Elijah Wood as Frodo, Ian McKellen as Gandalf, Andy Serkis as Gollum, and Lee Pace as Thranduil. Jamie Dornan steps into the role of Aragorn, while Oscar-winner Kate Winslet will play Marigol in the film that Serkis is directing. After this movie will come the tentatively titled Shadow of the Past, featuring a script written by super-fan Stephen Colbert, and this movie will finally bring Tom Bombadil to the big screen. 

Valve's Steam Controller presents itself as one of the best options for playing games on PC, specifically (but not limited to) games on Steam and through Steam Input. With tight integration into the platform, tons of customization options, and the ability to easily play controller and traditional keyboard- and- mouse titles alike, there's little to suggest that this isn't the one controller that does it all. Except that, currently, some firmware quirks are severely holding it back.

One of the most prevalent involves the controller's rumble, which exhibits some unpredictable and, in many cases, completely broken behavior, depending on the game you're playing. I've had a mostly great time with the Steam Controller, but recently some newer (and older) games have exposed the issue. With 007 First Light, the Steam Controller consistently (and powerfully) pulses, almost as if it's mimicking an in-game heartbeat, irrespective of what I'm doing. It's the same in Forza Horizon 6, albeit with far less force, but with the same rhythmic vibration that doesn't stop. Swapping to an Xbox controller in both cases resolves the issue entirely, laying blame squarely on Valve's controller.

But with Hollow Knight: Silksong, however, everything works as expected. That's the same for an older game like Metro Exodus, making the matter more confusing. This isn't isolated either. The Steam Controller subreddit is starting to become filled with similar posts regarding strange rumble behavior recently, perhaps due to a new firmware version potentially breaking something for those who have downloaded it. 

Some users have mentioned sending in the controller for a replacement, only for that to exhibit the same issue. Other users report not experiencing the issue at all. Steam Support, as reported by others, lays the blame squarely on developer support, and the absence of an official Steam Controller profile. That might be the case, but, as some users have noted, that shouldn't make the controller completely unusable. We've contacted Valve directly, and will update this story with any reply we receive in the future.

It's a disappointing reality for a controller that is already very expensive, despite all of its distinct features that are meant to set it apart from the plethora of third-party controllers. But if game support is going to be this spotty, and especially so in instances where the Steam Controller is the only one at fault, it does make that asking price seem a little steeper.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is getting a third story expansion in 2027, more than 12 years after the game's original release. 2015 was a long, long time ago, and gaming hardware has drastically changed since-- so much so that CD Projekt Red is updating the recommended specifications for The Witcher 3, dropping Windows 10 support in the process.

The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past will be skipping PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, which makes the slight change to the minimum requirements for PC understandable. The game will still be able to run on GPUs with less than 6GB of VRAM and 12GB of RAM. The requirement for an SSD over older hard drives might be tough if you haven't upgraded yet, especially with current prices, but is likely one you would've made a while ago. 

What is slightly alarming is the shift towards making Windows 11 a requirement, which hasn't gone down well with the PC community. "Mandatory Windows 11? Really? Either CDPR got a fat check from MicroSlop, or they don't give a sh*t about players at all," reads one thread on the Witcher 3 subreddit just a few hours after the expansion announcement. 

Many PC gamers are still on Windows 10 for various reasons, be it improved performance over the bloated Windows 11 or the inability to upgrade given the hardware requirements for the new operating system. Although The Witcher 3 now specifies Windows 11 in its minimum requirements, this does not mean that the game won't run at all on earlier versions of the OS. Instead, as CD Projekt Red clarified later, it means that the studio won't support or test the game on Windows 10 going forward.

This isn't a decision CD Projekt Red is making in a vacuum. Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 10 in late 2025, with the company ceasing security updates as it prioritises Windows 11 upgrades. Nvidia is also expected to stop releasing GPU drivers for Windows 10 later this year, and before the launch of Songs of the Past, which will likely have a discernible effect on the game's performance on your system.

"In short, this change does not mean that the game will not run on Windows 10," a post on The Witcher 3 forums concludes. "It means we cannot ensure that it will. Our goal is not to take something away from you. Our goal is to give you what is best the best way we can."

CD Projekt Red says that players will be able to revert to the current version of The Witcher 3 at any point, if newer updates make the game unplayable on Windows 10. The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past is expected to launch in 2027, with more details coming later in the summer.

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Marathon Season 2 begins June 2, and developer Bungie has now detailed all the ways its new Night Marsh map will have players jumping at shadows. For those who have been Marathon-curious but afraid to make the leap, the game will also be free to try June 2-9.

Playing Marathon, particularly solo, can be an intense game of cat and mouse--one that often feels like a survival-horror game as you scavenge for supplies and attempt to avoid hostile runners looking to end your run prematurely. In a lengthy blog post diving into what all is coming as part of Season 2, Bungie detailed how the game's Night Marsh map will further lean into that gameplay. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2UFxzejNNg

While Night Marsh is essentially a reskinned version of the game's existing Dire Marsh map, there are a significant number of changes between them. The map is, of course, now set at night, but other changes include the fact that exils are locked, and a new area that can be accessed beneath Complex, Complex Control.

The fact that the map will be set at night is the main change and will completely alter how encounters play out. Bungie said it's designed to be more of a "survival-horror experience," with fewer players and more environmental threats to deal with. Adding to the spook factor are some new tools players can use to cut through the darkness in the form of a flashlight, Vector ammo and grenades that highlight and illuminate the environment, signal flares, and Darksight scopes (meant to aid in traversing the map at night, not pinpointing enemies, Bungie clarified).

Escaping Night Marsh will be a challenge in and of itself, as players will need to gather Certs from fallen UESC enemies in order to access resource caches and to exfil. Those Certs will also be used to access Complex Control, where Bungie promises new "enemies, mysteries, and powerful loot awaits."

Night Marsh is just the tip of Marathon's Season 2 iceberg, with the new season also introducing a new Runner Shell, the defense-focused Sentinel. The first new shell to be added to Marathon since launch, the Sentinel is built around locking down areas and providing defensive buffs. 

Its Prime ability, Defender System, will automatically destroy enemy grenades and missiles for a limited time while boosting weapon handling for nearby teammates. Sentinel's Tactical ability puts down a proximity mine that snares hostiles in place, while their Traity ability activates a short range, motion-tracking system that pinpoints nearby moving targets on radar (not all that dissimilar from Halo by the sound of it). Lastly, Sentinel's passive, Castle Doctrine, grants increased resistances after taking splash damage as well as improved weapon handling for close-range weapons when surrounded by enemies. 

Both of Marathon Season 2's new weapons are designed to synergize nicely with Sentinel. The KKV-9SD is an SMG with a built-in suppressor and an extremely fast rate of fire. Season 2's other new weapon, The D54 Battle Pistol, is a three-round burst weapon designed to be great for close-range fights and 1v1 duels. 

There are plenty of other changes coming as part of Season 2 as well, including faster progression, reworked Faction skill trees, a dedicated duos queue, and the new Cradle progression system that allows players to convert unwanted loot into stat boosts. You can check out Bungie's blog for the full breakdown.

For those who check out Marathon during its free week, the game will be on sale across all its available platforms, and progress made during the free period will carry over to the full game. If you are a player returning to Marathon for Season 2, Bungie previously detailed how its seasonal wipes will work, explaining what does and doesn't carry over between seasons.

While Marathon continues to evolve, with Bungie promising new PvE modes to come as part of Season 2 and beyond, the studio's other game, Destiny 2, is winding down after nearly a decade . Bungie announced Destiny 2 would receive its final content update on June 9. The game will still remain playable but will not receive new content. With development on Destiny 2 ending, a recent report states Bungie will be hit with "significant layoffs" in the near future.

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Valve has announced a price hike for the Steam Deck OLED in the US--and it's a substantial increase.

The 1TB edition is going up from $650 to $950, while the 512GB OLED model is jumping from $550 to $790. The certified refurb models are not going up in price, but if you want a new OLED Steam Deck, prepare to pay more.

In a blog post, Valve said prices are going up due to "rising memory and storage costs." The company said the new prices "reflect the current state of component costs and other global logistical challenges across the industry as a whole."

Here are the new prices:

• Steam Deck OLED 512GB: Now $790 USD; CAD 1,130; EUR 780; GBP 650; AUD 1,200; PLN 3,280
• Steam Deck OLED 1TB: Now $950 USD; CAD 1,350; EUR 920; GBP 780; AUD 1,430; PLN 3,880

Valve's decision to raise prices on its own hardware came after similar price hikes on PlayStation and Xbox consoles. Nintendo, for its part, will raise the price of the Switch 2 in September. The platform-holders cited the global economic situation for why prices are going up.

Beyond the Steam Deck, Valve's next big hardware release is the new Steam Machine, which is set for release later this year. Critically, pricing has not been announced, but with the new Steam Deck price hikes--and the global economic landscape remaining far from settled--people should likely brace themselves for a high price.

Hardware engineer Yazan Aldehayyat said the aim is to land at a “competitive price” that matches up with the value provided. This is what most companies say about their new products. The aim, he said, is to make it “affordable.”

Some of the global economic factors driving up prices on many goods these days include the war in Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz driving up oil prices, AI-fueled demand on chips, and US President Donald Trump's controversial--and illegal--tariff program.

Around this time on the gaming calendar, you can usually count on a few things to appear: far too many gaming showcases and a new look at the next Call of Duty. Ahead of its upcoming reveal, it looks like key art for the game--and as rumored, it's Modern Warfare 4--has popped up, although you'll have to squint your eyes really, really hard to make out what it is--almost like a '90s 3D painting, taunting us with the image of a potential three-dimensional sailboat.

Billbil-Kin--who has a solid track record with leaks--has posted a very blurry image "for one of Activision's games," and we're betting it's not a Tony Hawk's Underground remaster. Look closely, and you'll see what appears to be three soldiers advancing forward. That's a considerable upgrade from your typical Call of Duty cover, which usually features a single soldier front and center.

Longtime Call of Duty developer Infinity Ward is expected to be the lead developer on this year's entry in the series, and it recently teased that its next game will be a "bold" and "relentless" combat experience. This year sees some big changes to how Call of Duty is released, as there won't be a day-one launch through Xbox Game Pass. Microsoft's subscription service is widely thought to have contributed to the worst Call of Duty sales year since 2008, and in the future, new Call of Duty games will only come to Game Pass around a year after launch.

A full retail launch for Modern Warfare 4 across PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S is predicted to be a massive financial success, but it'll also be facing off against Rockstar’s GTA 6 in November, which could have a significant impact on the game's bottom line. It wouldn't be the first time that a new release from Rockstar Games has outsold Call of Duty, as Red Dead Redemption 2 managed this rare feat back in 2018 when it went up against Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.

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Dragon Quest celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, and to mark the occasion, a new update was given on the long-in-development Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate. First announced five years ago, the game won't be out for quite a while yet, as executive producer Yosuke Saito announced that development had been restarted on the project and it has a brand-new name--Dragon Quest 12: Beyond Dreams

"We're hard at work on Dragon Quest 12, but due to a reshuffle of the team and a restart of development, it's going to be a bit longer until it's in your hands," Saito said in a Dragon Quest livestream. "Work on the original version, Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate, hit a lot of hurdles along the way. But as we kept talking with Mr. Yuji Horii (Dragon Quest game designer) and pinned down what a mainline Dragon Quest game should look like, we decided to move things around and start over from scratch. It was a major decision, but I believe it was the right one to ensure the next Dragon Quest game will be one that all you fans of the series will really love."

Saito then debuted a sneak peek at the game, revealing a colorful collection of scenes featuring new characters, landscapes, and monsters. One thing that has been preserved for Dragon Quest 12 is its art direction, as it's still heavily inspired by the work of Akira Toriyama. The late Dragon Ball creator was a character designer on the series since its inception and worked on every entry in the main series until his death in 2024.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCRie0bKvtE

Development on Dragon Quest 12 hit a rocky patch in 2024, when series producer Yu Miyake reportedly stepped down due to repeated delays. Updates have been sporadic on the game, which follows the last mainline installment, 2018's Dragon Quest 11: Echoes of an Elusive Age. Fortunately, the franchise has expanded with spin-offs over the years, and fans can look forward to Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World. Launching for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, and Switch 2 in the near future, the spin-off is a creature-collecting game that's not too dissimilar from Pokemon, but with a signature Dragon Quest touch.

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Kingdom Come developer Warhorse Studios has multiple new games in the works, including a game set in Middle-earth and another game set in the Kingdom Come universe. During a recent broadcast, the developer shared new updates about both projects.

The next Kingdom Come game--which Warhorse stopped short of calling Kingdom Come: Deliverance 3--is set for release during the company's next fiscal year, IGN reported. That means it is expected to arrive between April 2027 and March 2028.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0Vn-OZHvIM

Not much is known about the game apart from it being labeled an "open-world RPG" and a "new Kingdom Come adventure." 

"We still continue expanding the universe of Kingdom Come," Warhorse communications director Tobias Stolz-Zwilling said, as reported by IGN. "That is also very dear to us. Do not forget that Kingdom Come: Deliverance always was and still is and always will be an absolute passion project here in the studio."

Stolz-Zwilling said it's important that Kingdom Come fans "don't have to wait seven years for another Kingdom Come." And while next financial year is the "aim" for the new Kingdom Come game, Stolz-Zwilling reminded everyone that game development can be messy, so the release target projection could change.

Deliverance 2 lead designer Prokop Jirsa is in charge of the team making the next Kingdom Come game, while Deliverance 2 design director Viktor Bocan leading the development of the untitled Lord of the Rings game. 

Stolz-Zwilling said Warhorse has assembled a "mind-blowing team" to make the Lord of the Rings game, and it's aiming to be "deeply immersive" and a game that has a "living world" featuring "interesting characters, memorable places, and of course a strong narrative focus."

Beyond these two projects, Warhorse is working on a movie version of Kingdom Come. 

In addition to Warhorse's The Lord of the Rings game, Tomb Raider studio Crystal Dynamics is said to be working on its own The Lord of the Rings project. Both studios are owned by Embracer, which itself owns the gaming rights to The Lord of the Rings.

A free demo for Capcom's Resident Evil Requiem has arrived, but it features a major limitation. Save data from the demo does not carry over to the full version, so anyone who likes their experience in the demo and goes on to buy the game will need to start over.

The free Requiem demo includes a portion of the game's "early stages." You can use the links below to queue up the Requiem demo on your preferred platform:

• PS5
• Xbox Series X|S
• PC
• Switch 2

Requiem released at the end of February this year and has sold more than 7 million copies so far. It ranks as the No. 1 best-selling game in the US so far in 2026. In March, Capcom announced plans to expand the game with new content and a story expansion. 

Beyond ongoing updates to Requiem, the Resident Evil franchise will expand in September with Weapons and Barbarian director Zach Cregger's Resident Evil movie. It's not based on any specific Resident Evil game, but aims to capture the essence and tone of Capcom's franchise.

Red Dead Redemption 2's multiplayer mode, Red Dead Online, did not achieve the same level of success and popularity that GTA Online did, but Rockstar owner Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick wants people to know the game overall was still a gigantic hit. 

Red Dead Online was supported with major updates in the years after the game launched in 2018. However, Rockstar dialed things back and the game no longer receives the kind of regular, meaty updates it once did or similar kinds of expansions that GTA Online gets.

Zelnick told IGN that he does not see Red Dead Online as being a "missed opportunity," and his evidence? The game sold 85 million copies and has become the No. 4 best-selling game in the history of video games, recently surpassing Wii Sports. 

"There is literally nothing about Red Dead selling 85 million units that could signal a missed opportunity. And Red Dead Online has been immensely successful and long lasting," Zelnick said.

The executive also theorized that Red Dead, as a franchise, would be seen in a different light if it wasn't made by the same company that makes GTA games.

“I think if we didn't have Grand Theft Auto here at our company, then people would just talk about the fact that we have this massive franchise in Red Dead, which we do and of which we're very proud,” he said. “I actually personally think Red Dead is just amazing and I love engaging with it. And I think the reason it continues to sell is that it's just spectacular entertainment. It's beautiful and it feels very up to date despite the fact that it's not a new title.”

Red Dead Redemption 2 sold a further 3 million copies between January and March, and that was among the highest quarterly sales total since the game launched in October 2018. Of course, the game has been heavily discounted since launch; it's now available for $15 on PS5 and $20 on Xbox Series X|S with a temporary discount. The game is also part of the PlayStation Plus catalog for subscribers. 

Red Dead Online, meanwhile, is available as a standalone purchase for $20, but it's currently 50% off right now on console. 

Red Dead Redemption 2 came to PC about a year after it debuted on console, and people have created all manner of unique and creative mods for PC.

Given the huge success of Rockstar's Red Dead games, it seems likely the developer will eventually return to the series with a new installment, but nothing is confirmed for now. Next up for Rockstar is the November launch of GTA 6, which is launching first on console and presumably coming to PC later.

The Witcher 3 developer CD Projekt Red has announced the new Songs of the Past expansion for the game, which comes 11 years after its second expansion, Blood and Wine. Co-developed with Fool's Theory--a studio that includes several Witcher 3 veterans and previously released The Thaumaturge in 2024--Songs of the Past will be revealed in more detail later this year.

What CDPR has revealed is that the expansion will launch in 2027 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S versions of The Witcher 3, and it will once again revolve around Geralt of Rivia. Rumors about a new Witcher 3 DLC began picking up earlier this year, with initial reports speculating that the DLC could see players visit the far-eastern destination of Zerrikania. New reports claimed that the DLC will instead reuse existing assets and will be set in the territories of Temeria and Redania.

CDPR has also confirmed that system requirements for The Witcher 3 on PC will be updated to "ensure smooth performance and compatibility" going forward. This means that any Witcher 3 player running the game on a Windows 10 operating system will need to upgrade to Windows 11 if they want to keep playing it. If you're curious, you can check out the updated PC specs below for The Witcher 3:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 or Intel Core i5-8400
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 or AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT 8GB
• VRAM: 6GB
• RAM: 12GB
• Storage: 70GB SSD
• Operating System: 64-bit Windows 11

Curiously, CDPR also teased something else for this week. "We originally planned to make this big reveal during our REDstreams tomorrow, but let’s say we found something we didn't yet expect on RED Launcher," the studio said in a social media post that included wolf and swords emojis, symbols related to The Witcher franchise.

It's a busy time for The Witcher franchise currently, as not only is there new content on the way for The Witcher 3, but the first game is getting a remake and The Witcher 4 is also in development. Outside of that franchise, CDPR is also working on a Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, and a new Cyberpunk: Edgerunners anime series is also in the works.

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This week, Epic Games published a concept-art image showing what appeared to be a Porsche vehicle dropping into Fortnite. However, it was quickly removed after players theorized it had been made with the use of generative AI. And while Epic has since offered an explanation for what happened, something still seems ... off.

Almost immediately after it was posted, ResetEra users pointed out that the image in question did not appear to be made by a human. Featuring a Porsche vehicle floating alongside a whole bunch of players, the car brand's logo is illegible on the platform. Additionally, what appears to be the Riot Games logo is visible on the balloon.

https://twitter.com/UnrealEngine/status/2059256591866528033?s=20

Epic Games later said the image was provided by Porsche and, as it was shared by the Unreal Engine Twitter account, one would assume that means it was created using those tools. However, even after GameSpot talked to an Epic Games rep about the image, it remains unclear why or how the Riot Games logo made its way onto the balloon. Combined with the Porsche logo, it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to infer that someone at Porsche made it via AI.

At the very least, the car configurator tool--which does make use of the Unreal Engine--looks a whole lot more impressive than the AI image. While you wouldn't download a car, it appears some would AI-generate one.

007 First Light, the new James Bond game, releases on May 27, but people who paid extra got to start playing today. Some have already beaten the game and posted all of the game's cutscenes on YouTube, including the final sequence.

We won't spoil the specifics, but the ending involves a major moment for James Bond and teases what he may do next in a sequel.

That there would be a sequel to First Light should not come as much of a surprise, as the developers at IO said they envisioned a trilogy of Bond games.

“I don’t want to speak too big about it, but I just hope we’ll do a thing that will define James Bond in gaming for years to come,” IO CEO Hakan Abrak said in 2024 before the game even had a name. “And that is not only one game, but that we create a universe for gamers to own for many years to come that we can grow with that next to the Bond on the movies.”

Many of the James Bond movies, meanwhile, wrap up with Bond preparing for another adventure, so the game ending that way was in keeping with the franchise's tradition of reminding people that Bond will be back.

First Light is getting solid reviews, boasting an impressive 87 Metascore on GameSpot sister site Metacritic. GameSpot's First Light review scored it an 8/10.

First Light unlocks on May 27 for everyone, and you can consult the game's official unlock times to find out when it arrives where you live.

The Switch 2 edition of First Light has been delayed and is now set for release sometime this summer, though a specific date has not been announced.

Beyond a possible sequel to First Light, IO is working on a fantasy game and has teased it will return to Hitman someday.

As for the James Bond movie series, the 26th Bond movie is in the works now and casting is underway for a new actor to play the lead role. Daniel Craig played the role most recently, wrapping up his five-movie run as the British superspy with 2021's No Time to Die.

Roberts Space Industries and Cloud Imperium Games have announced a massive new funding milestone for the PC space sim Star Citizen--the game has now exceeded $1 billion in crowdfunding since the campaign launched in 2012.

At press time, the game's public funding stands at $1.007 billion from more than 6.5 million people.

While Star Citizen is playable currently, the game remains in early access after some 10 years of ongoing development. Chris Roberts, the founder of Roberts Space Industries, said Star Citizen's standalone single-player game featuring many, many celebrities--Squadron 42--is targeting a 2026 release. The 1.0 version of Star Citizen is expected to follow later.

Roberts told Variety recently that it "feels pretty epic" to be so close to Star Citizen's 1.0 release. He said the studio is in the "closing stages" and that the game is "coming together really well."

"I’ve been very lucky as a creative because I’ve had the ability to take the time and have the funding to really do it. James Cameron had that when he was doing his Avatars," he said. "This is sort of like my version of it in games where I’ve had the time; I’ve been able to spend the time to get the tech. And so the vision that’s being delivered is really my imagination, my vision from the beginning, and that’s not something you always get the chance to do. So I’m pretty grateful for that, and I’m also very excited for people on the outside to experience it.”

Star Citizen has courted a fair share of controversy over the years. One backer was upset that Star Citizen was taking so long to materialize that they spoke to their state's attorney general and ultimately got a refund. Star Citizen and its developer were also caught up in a lawsuit from Crytek over the game's use of the CryEngine.

One of the ways that Star Citizen makes money currently is by selling ships, like the newly announced $5,000 Anvil Odin. This is a ship concept, and not something that can be used in the game currently--that will come later, according to IGN.

Not every ship costs this much, however, as prices in the ship store including a wide range. There are also various upgrades players can purchase for their ships, as well as $10 and $20/month subscription bundles. Star Citizen itself, meanwhile, costs $45.

The Squadron 42 single-player game features a number of big-name actors, including Gary Oldman, Mark Hamill, Mark Strong, John Rhys-Davies, Liam Cunningham, Ben Mendelsohn, Gillian Anderson, and Andy Serkis.

Destruction AllStars, the multiplayer-focused vehicle combat game and Sony first-party exclusive originally slated to be a PlayStation 5 launch title before instead becoming a PlayStation Plus freebie, is now offline and no longer available on the PlayStation Store. 

Searching for the game on Sony's storefront doesn't bring up developer Lucid Games' car brawler. Players received a game-service shutdown notification (confirmed by GameSpot) that informed them Destruction AllStar's multiplayer services have been taken offline and that Destruction Points, the game's premium currency, have been removed from sale. 

https://bsky.app/profile/wario64.bsky.social/post/3mmrjpgetes2f

For those who already have Destruction AllStars in their library, the game's offline Arcade mode will remain playable, according to the notification.

Destruction AllStars was published by Sony and intended to be a full priced PS5 launch title alongside games like Bluepoint's Demon's Souls remake. However, the game was delayed in the leadup to the PS5's launch, instead releasing three months later in February 2021. When it finally arrived, it was no longer a premium game, but rather a free title included as part of PS Plus for two months. After that two-month window, it could be bought for $20. More recently, it was included as part of PS Plus Extra. 

The car brawler was intended to be a live-service title, but only received one season in May 2021. That same month, Lucid Games' announced it would add bots to the game's online multiplayer to help fill matches. Unlike more recent live-service Sony games like Helldivers 2 and Marathon, Destruction AllStars never released on PC or Xbox.

Destruction AllStars is just one of many live-service games to be shut down in recent months and years, though it did technically survive much longer than most (despite only launching a single season). Other high-profile game shutdowns in recent memory include this year's short lived Highguard, from former Titanfall developers, and Sony's own Concord, a first-party hero shooter that lasted just over a week before its plug was pulled in 2024. 

Another Live-Service Game Is Shutting Down, Joining Highguard View Images

Today's not opening day for the MLB season, but it is opening day for a new MLB game. Sony has officially launched MLB The Show Mobile, so now you can keep hitting absolute bombs even if you had to take a bathroom break from the console versions.

Games won't function exactly like they do in the console versions, however. Using a card system and a Momentum resource, you'll have to pick and choose when to deploy your best players in a game, with your squad all mixed up in a deck so you are not entirely sure who will be available at the start.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ4GVQhNX8w

The Seasons and Moments modes should be familiar to longtime MLB The Show fans. The former is focused on quick, three-inning games (like Mini Seasons in MLB The Show 26), and will dish out extra rewards as you progress. The latter, meanwhile is designed for quick challenges, letting you recreate famous plays or hit a certain stat target.

And, as it's MLB The Show, there is of course a multiplayer component, but it's a little different here. Head-to-head play will see you compete against other players in "turn-based baseball minigames," with the highest score winning. You're not required to be playing at the same time, either, so it should offer some more flexibility.

MLB The Show Mobile is now available on iOS and Android. Its big sibling MLB The Show 26 is available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Switch.

The latest attempt to dethrone The Sims from its lofty perch as the unquestioned monarch of life sim games is Paralives, an indie game looking to provide much more depth of personality than we see from The Sims or InZoi. Things seem to be going well so far, with the Early Access title selling hundreds of thousands of copies and earning Very Positive reviews on Steam since it launched on May 25. But there's one thing pretty much everyone playing so far dislikes about it: that jerky and inconsistent camera. Fortunately, there's a solution to this problem, thanks to a well-known Sims modder hopping to the new game with a camera mod.

For most folks, the hinky Paralives camera won't break their games, but it's an annoyance that they'll have to regularly wrestle with while they play. The way the camera works now, it's hard to precisely control your perspective, and it loves to shift down to a lower floor while you're trying to do stuff on an upper floor. When both of those issues rear their ugly heads at the same time, it can feel nearly impossible to click on the thing you want to click on, and those who are prone to motion sickness might even feel dizzy or ill as a result of the jerkiness.

Depending on what you're doing in the game, it can goof up so frequently that it feels like the point of Paralives is to figure out how to use the camera controls effectively. Since Paralives is in Early Access and apparently doing very well, judging by those sales numbers, we should expect the devs will eventually smooth out the issues with the camera. But in the meantime, while you wait for that, there's a mod that will help. 

Courtesy of long-time popular Sims 4 modder TwistedMexi, the Sensible Camera Control mod makes camera movements more smooth, and removes some of its ability to make automatic adjustments, since it was those auto movements that caused the "falling through the floor" effect that's been driving players nuts. You can grab the Sensible Camera Control mod from the Steam Workshop here.

It's not a perfect solution, of course, since the mod has some quirks of its own. But the many comments on the mod's Workshop page agree it's a big improvement over Paralives' vanilla camera. And the fact that TwistedMexi was able to create this mod so quickly could be a great sign for the future of modding in Paralives.

Helldivers 2's next update is one players have been vocal about wanting for quite some time, and it's not new content--it's an optimization and performance update, which developer Arrowhead Studios said is "just the opening salvo" of more improvements to come.

As detailed by Arrowhead in a blog post, an update coming to Helldivers 2 on May 27 will look to improve stability, reduce latency, and add new upscaling support to the popular co-op shooter. The developer even included a massive collage of Reddit posts from players asking for upscaling support, to which Arrowhead has now replied, "We heard you." 

On the upscaling side of the equation, Arrowhead is introducing new options tailored to each platform, as well as support for dynamic resolution scaling and variable refresh rates and shading. Below is what's coming as part of the update. 

Helldivers 2 May 27 Update Features

Upscaling Support

• PC: FSR 4.0.3 (on supported GPUs), FSR 3.1.5, DLSS 4.5, and XeSS 3.0
• PS5 Pro: PSSR 1
• PS5: FSR 3.1
• Xbox Series X/S: FSR 3.1

Visual Optimizations

• Variable Refresh Rate for PS5 and PS5 Pro
• Variable Rate Shading
• Dynamic Resolution Scaling for PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC, as well as increased resolution to 1440p PS5 "Quality" preset as part of PS5 power-saving mode, as well as in performance mode on PS5 and Xbox Series X. 

Reduced Latency

• Nvidia Reflex
• AMD Anti-Lag 2

Arrowhead said the update is just the first step when it comes to the goal of improving "performance across the fleet." Next steps will include making further adjustments as necessary once the update is live, but also an additional "tech-focused update" coming later in the summer to push the improvements "even further." 

The performance and stability update comes as Arrowhead has taken flak from players for poor communication with the Helldivers community and its focus on releasing paid DLC over improving technical issues. Those complaints have seen the game's recent user-review scores dip into "Mostly Negative" on Steam, though the game still sports an overall "Very Positive" rating. In the blog announcing the new update, Arrowhead said it's "focused on being clearer, more consistent, and giving you better visibility into what's coming and why."

More technical improvements aren't all Helldivers 2 fans have to look forward to. Arrowhead recently announced the game's next Legendary Warbond crossover will be with Warhammer 40K and release later this year.

Helldivers 2’s New Premium Warbond Finally Does Something No Warbond Has Done Before View Images

This week marks the 10th anniversary of Blood and Wine, the second and final DLC for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Prior to its release in 2016, CD Projekt Red was very clear that this DLC was the end of the story for Geralt of Rivia. But now that the developer has announced a new Witcher 3 stream coming this week, players are getting their hopes up and asking for more new DLC.

CD Projekt Red announced that The Witcher 3 - Blood and Wine anniversary stream will take place on May 28 at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET / 5 PM CEST. The social media message doesn’t promise anything beyond a return “to the land of knights, vineyards, and vampires.”

https://twitter.com/thewitcher/status/2059288819027910898

Regardless, players quickly made their wishes known.

https://twitter.com/Patoche_Rouky/status/2059316203072442704 https://twitter.com/CyberPierogi/status/2056807028224610675 https://twitter.com/Azrael007x/status/2059296703740510364 https://twitter.com/qTazzzzzz/status/2059297134340386884 https://twitter.com/RavingCO/status/2059289256942600452

There were unconfirmed reports about additional Witcher 3 DLC earlier this year. More recently, it was rumored that the new DLC may bridge the gap between The Witcher 3 and The Witcher 4. 

CD Projekt Red previously revealed that The Witcher 3 will get one last update that will let console players dive into numerous mods that PC players have created in the 11 years since the original game. However, that update was delayed and it doesn’t currently have a release date. It’s possible that the official announcement could come during this week’s streaming event.

The Witcher 4 was officially unveiled near the end of 2025, and it doesn’t currently have a release date. While voice actor Doug Cockle has confirmed that he will reprise his role as Geralt in the sequel, Ciri will be the new main character of the game.

Best Witcher 3 Mods To Download In 2026 View Images

A new batch of content is set to arrive in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Warzone with Season 4. New seasons of Call of Duty typically add more maps, new weapons to unlock, and limited-time events. With Season 4 set to arrive next month, we already have a few hints of what to expect. Here, we'll highlight all the rumors and announcements for Call of Duty Season 4 so far.

Call of Duty Season 4 start times

Activision confirmed Season 4 of Black Ops 7 and Warzone arrives on June 4. Call of Duty's big updates usually go live at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET / 5 PM BST across all platforms.

What to expect from Season 4

A new season of Call of Duty means a new battle pass packed with fresh cosmetics, more DLC weapons to unlock, new maps, and additional game modes. A season also generally includes limited-time events and new challenges to complete.

Treyarch recently released the Season 4 intro cinematics for Black Ops 7's post-launch story. This shows Karma facing off against Leon Rook, a new Guild operator who will appear in the Season 4 battle pass. This is an operator in full body armor with a helmet featuring animal-like teeth. Notably, the soldier is also wielding a gun reminiscent of the popular AN-94 assault rifle from Black Ops 2, making it very possible that this is a weapon you can unlock in the upcoming battle pass. 

Call of Duty seasons also typically bring a new season of Ranked Play and rewards for both multiplayer and Warzone.

Black Ops 7 multiplayer

We don’t have specific details revealed for Season 4 of multiplayer yet. The big update will likely include more multiplayer maps, game modes, and new challenges.

Call of Duty data miner "HeyImAlaix" suggests a few throwback maps could arrive in Season 4, with mentions of Dig, Vertigo, and Launch in the game files. Launch is from Black Ops 1, and Vertigo and Dig are both from Black Ops 2.

Zombies

A new Zombies map is highly likely, as Treyarch confirmed there are still two more new maps planned to release for Black Ops 7. However, a new Zombies map won't arrive at launch of the season, as the developer is saving Zombie map releases for the mid-season "Reloaded" updates.

Warzone

Most of the specific details of Season 4 of Warzone haven't been announced yet, but Activision has confirmed the return of the Fortune's Keep Resurgence map. 

Avalon and the Black Ops Royale mode will most likely remain as a big-map option, as the developer has previously revealed that Avalon would receive seasonal updates to gradually change the map.