Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone prefers just adding stuff to Stardew Valley via updates, but the game's creator isn't ruling out Stardew Valley 2 in the future. However, that could be a ways off, since he's hoping his next game, Haunted Chocolatier, will arrive in the next five years.

Appearing on Bobby Lee's TigerBelly podcast (spotted by GamesRadar), Barone was asked why he doesn't just make Stardew Valley 2. The Stardew Valley creator explained why updates are more appealing to him than starting entirely over. "It's so much easier to just add more stuff to Stardew Valley than to make a whole new game from scratch," said Barone. "Stardew Valley, all of the major systems are already done."

But Barone did give hope to people wanting a full-fledged sequel in the future. "I might eventually make a Stardew Valley 2, to be honest," Barone said. First, though, he wants to switch things up. "I don't want to just be the Stardew Valley guy, that's why I'm making Haunted Chocolatier," he said.

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Death Stranding 2: On the Beach DualSense Limited Edition controller

$85

Preorder at PlayStation Direct

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach launches soon, and if you're looking to hike across the post-apocalyptic world in style, a new DualSense controller is now available to preorder ahead of its release on June 26. Priced at $85, The Death Stranding 2 controller will be available to preorder starting May 22 and it'll be sold exclusively through the PlayStation Direct store in the US. As you'd expect, this will be a limited-edition controller so stock will likely sell out quickly, just like the Astro Bot and Helldivers 2 DualSense controllers did when they first launched.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach DualSense Limited Edition controller $85

Sony says that it worked closely with Death Stranding 2 developer Kojima Productions to design the controller, resulting in a device with a sleek black finish and insignia based on the fictional Drawbridge company that appears in the sequel. You'll also find the motto of Drawbridge on the touchpad:

"Both stick and rope, to protect and connect. Together, from tomorrow."

Like other DualSense controllers, this model features the same haptic-feedback tech like adaptive triggers and nuanced vibrations. It can also be used on PC wirelessly through its Bluetooth connection, but if you're planning to use it for ports of PlayStation games, you will need to tether it to your machine with a USB-C cable if you want all of the immersive features to work.

Preorder at PlayStation Direct Gallery

This collectible will be released the same day as Death Stranding 2, and in case you haven't done so yet, you can preorder the game right now in one of several different editions. All preorders come with in-game bonus content, while the digital Deluxe and Collector's Editions offer even more goodies and 48-hour early access to the game. The Collector's Edition also has the best assortment of extra physical goodies, as you're getting a cool 15-inch Magellan Man Statue, art cards, and a Dollman figurine.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Standard Edition

$70

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Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Digital Deluxe Edition

$80

See at PlayStation Store

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Collector’s Edition

$230

Preorder at PS Direct

While most of Sony's themed controllers tend to sell out very fast, some of them are still available. While it is divisive, the $85 Fortnite DualSense controller will likely appeal to younger fans of the game thanks to it graffiti designs and bright blue finish. For something a little bit more subdued, Walmart has received a fresh restock of The Last of Us controllers, which combine a two-tone black and white design with various icons and emblems from the Naughty Dog-developed games.

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Lego Ideas: Disney Pixar Luxo Jr. (613 pieces)

$70 | Releases June 1

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Pixar is responsible for dozens of memorable characters, but its original creation remains one of its most iconic. Debuting in a short film from 1986, Luxo Jr. lives on as the lamp shown before every new Pixar film. And if you want to add the quirky character to your home, preorders are now open for the Lego Ideas: Disney Pixar Luxo Jr. Set. It officially releases on June 1, but we’re expecting preorders to be a hot commodity, as they are for most Disney items, so it's wise to preorder while you can.

Lego Ideas: Disney Pixar Luxo Jr. (613 pieces) $70 | Releases June 1

This intricate lamp is a faithful recreation of Pixar’s Luxo Jr. and its colorful ball. The two models are fully posable, with the lamp offering several articulating joints and the option to “deflate” the ball by removing two of its side plates. Luxo Jr. can be displayed next to the ball or on top of the deflated ball, giving you multiple ways to show it off it your home theater.

Preorder at Amazon Preorder at Lego Store Lego Ideas: Disney Pixar Luxo Jr.Gallery

The lamp isn’t functional (as in, it won't light up your desk), but it does come with a vibrant yellow piece designed to look like a lightbulb. There’s also a bunch of Easter eggs hidden throughout the set, with references to movies like Up, The Incredibles, Monsters, Inc., and Toy Story. Luxo Jr. stands 11 inches tall when completed.

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Hideo Kojima has shared some new insight into Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, saying COVID impacted the sequel. In an interview with IGN, Kojima said the original Death Stranding, which was released in 2019, was made based on the theme of "We're in danger of being divided and isolated, so let's connect."

Then the COVID pandemic began in 2020, after Death Stranding 2 came out. Having lived through the pandemic, Kojima said he's changed his way of thinking when it comes to connection.

"After actually experiencing that, I felt that maybe it's not such a good thing to connect so much. That feeling is foreshadowed in lots of different scenes and settings [in Death Stranding 2]. I think there are portions that players will only understand once they reach the end of the game. What I felt during the pandemic is quite strongly reflected within this title," he said.

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Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson has commented on what impact, if any, there might be on the video game industry due to growing concerns about the global economy due to tariffs and other factors.

As part of EA's latest investor briefing, Wilson said he's personally witnessed many "twists and turns in the macro environment" in his 25 years with EA. In that time, he's learned that EA and its core franchises have remained "incredibly resilient through macro-challenging times."

The reason for this, Wilson said, is that he believes "entertainment is a fundamental human need."

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The solo developer behind Schedule 1 has released the drug-dealing simulator's latest patch notes. Version 0.3.5 introduces a purchasable jukebox as well as the new storage unit property. If you're hyper efficient like me, making as many of the Schedule 1 recipes as quickly as possible, you'll have encountered a lack of storage multiple times in your playthrough. You can only squeeze a finite number of shelves into your normal property, after all.

The storage unit property will be located at the north end of the overpass next to the casino, and costs $5,000 to purchase from Ray's Realty. This makes it an easy get for anyone in the early few hours of the game, since it's one of the cheapest properties to own.

Buy the Schedule 1 storage unit from Ray's Realty

The storage unit, called Stash and Dash, allows for one worker and one loading bay, meaning you can have important ingredients or materials delivered to it. It's a limited space, but in the early game it's got plenty of room for several grow setups, and more shelves--perfect to stash all of your Schedule 1 money on, if you so desire.

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It might be 8 years old*, but Mario Kart 8 Deluxe continues to sell like it's a brand-new game for Switch. Case in point: The racing game sold 6.23 million copies for Nintendo's last fiscal year (April 1, 2024-March 31, 2025). That brings lifetime sales of the title to 68.20 million units.

For comparison's sake, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sold more than two newer Switch releases combined for Nintendo's last fiscal year--The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. The former saw the Hylian princess as the protagonist and sold 4.09 million copies since launching in September. Meanwhile, the Mario RPG remake has sold 2.10 million units after arriving almost a year ago on May 23, 2024.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is Nintendo's best-selling game of all time, if Wii Sports isn't treated as a standalone game. That minigame collection that focused on motion controls, though, was packed in with Wii hardware in all major markets outside of Japan. The next-closest Switch games in sales rankings are Animal Crossing: New Horizons at 47.82 million copies and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate at 36.24 million units.

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Grand Theft Auto 6's new trailer reached 475 million views since its release on Tuesday, Rockstar Games has confirmed. The company confirmed this to The Hollywood Reporter, saying it's the biggest debut for a trailer for anything ever, surpassing the 365 million views that Deadpool & Wolverine clocked in its first 24 hours.

As of May 8, the GTA 6 trailer on Rockstar's YouTube page alone had more than 86 million views, but the 475 million tally counts views across networks and platforms.

GTA 6 is one of the most-anticipated games of all time, and it's expected to sell 40 million copies in its first year. The game was originally due to launch in Fall 2025 before being delayed to 2026.

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The ongoing legal battle between Nintendo and Pocketpair--creators of indie hit Palworld--has already seen the developer make a big change to Palworld's world through the removal of the Pal Sphere. Today, Pocketpair has announced another "compromise" via its next update, which will remove the ability to glide with a Pal--now, gliding will require a separate glider item.

The official Pocketpair account on X announced the coming update, and that the change was a direct result of continued legal proceedings with Nintendo. The post refers to the decision as "disappointing," but also "necessary in order to prevent further disruptions to the development of Palworld."

[Regarding the lawsuit, changes to Palworld and the future]
We would like to express our sincere gratitude and appreciation for the continued support of our fans over the past few months. We apologize for not being able to share as much information as we would like, but we trust…

— Palworld (@Palworld_EN) May 8, 2025

"Furthermore, we regret to inform our players that with the implementation of Patch v0.5.5, we must make yet another compromise," the post reads. Pocketpair did say that Pals would still give passive buffs to gliding, and that they "remain committed to developing Palworld and delivering exciting new content to our fans."

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Players may have been disappointed when Grand Theft Auto 6 was delayed into next year, but the newly released second trailer has gone a long ways towards raising the anticipation to another level. However, if fans were hoping that GTA 6 would arrive with a robust 60 frames per second then they may be disappointed to hear that the trailer was only 30fps.

Digital Foundry has shared an extensive breakdown of GTA 6's second trailer, and its analysis is that it was upscaled to 4K at 30fps. DF also suggested that it may not be possible to get GTA 6 to 60fps at launch without drastically reducing the ray-tracing touches that give the game its visual identity.

The Digital Foundry team gushed over the trailer's reflective surfaces, particularly during an early scene with Jason in his car that features multiple moving reflections simultaneously. Even small touches like the condensation in Jason's beer bottles and the movement of the liquid inside were well-executed.

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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 developer Sandfall Interactive has revealed that it'll release a patch this week that will tone down one of the more popular builds from the game. Expedition 33 has a robust system for buildcrafting, and one of them turns the character Maelle into a weapon of mass destruction. It's primarily an endgame build that revolves around the Stendhal skill, and when done correctly, it's capable of eliminating enemies in a single blow.

In an update on its social media channels, Sandfall says that Stendhal was "underwhelming for most of development" and that it was boosted before Expedition 33 was released. "We still want you to be able to break the game--and you absolutely still can--but Stendhal was making it a bit too easy," Sandfall wrote.

The patch to adjust Stendhal's damage output will roll out to Steam first on May 9 before it lands on other platforms, and Sandfall added that it'll still be capable of one-shotting enemies, but it'll be "more in line" with other strategies and builds.

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Furi Demake, an 8-bit mini game inspired by iconic 2016 action game Furi, is about to become a paid game on Steam after over a year of being free. The developer explained that the move to a paid game will help the game increase its visibility, as well as test interest for potential expansion of the retro demake.

In a recent Steam news update, the team behind Furi Demake announced that fans would have until June 23 to grab the game for free, at which point it would become a paid game. "Unfortunately a free game can only enter a limited amount of fests or events on Steam," the update explained, saying that the demake hadn't been getting as much visibility as initially hoped. "Making it paid will allow us to register it in events, discount it, and make it visible to more people."

In addition to this, making the game paid will be a way of testing demand for the retro-styled game, potentially allowing Furi Demake to expand to include other Furi bosses. At present, the demake only includes Furi's first boss fight, The Chain.

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Just after passing its first year in early access, action-RPG No Rest For The Wicked is making a major change by scrapping its entire attribute system. Moon Studios CEO Thomas Mahler said that players just weren't getting the current system, and that it was time to replace it with something new entirely.

"One thing that's become abundantly clear to us is that the attribute system has to die," Mahler said in an extensive X post about the upcoming changes. "We've always been a bit wary of using this system, but we wanted to go ahead with it anyway, since it's a system that other big games in the genre use and we thought that because of that, people would get it. After having analyzed the data, people clearly don't get it."

The post goes into detail on what Moon Studios has analyzed from No Rest For The Wicked's first year in early access, with Mahler saying that many players ended up "having insanely underpowered builds without understanding why."

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Nintendo has appointed Japanese designer Kazuhiko Hachiya to its board of directors. You might not know him by name, but Hachiya is known for his ambitious products, like a flying machine inspired by the works of Miyazaki and his own take on a real version of the hoverboard from the movie Back to the Future.

Hachiya created the "OpenSky" project that led to the creation of a motor glider based on the Mowe plane from the Miyazaki anime Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Hachiya succeeded in creating a glider version of the aircraft and a jet-powered version. Take a look at the plane for yourself in the video below.

Before building his Miyazaki-inspired plane, Hachiya made wearable devices that would allow the wearers to see through each other's eyes. He also made an "AirBoard," which was billed as a real-life version of the hoverboard from Back to the Future.

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The developer behind viral browser game One Million Checkboxes is back, and this time there's One Million Chessboards. The online browser game has no real rules or win states: It simply lets players loose on a playground--or battlefield--made up of a million chessboards.

The rules of One Million Chessboards are simple: "Moving a piece moves it for everyone, instantly. There are no turns. You can move between boards." Other than that, players are free to do what they wish within the bounds given--whether that's capturing as many enemy pieces as possible, capturing as many enemy kings as possible, taking on another player in live combat, or just getting creative with it.

The game tracks a number of stats that add depth to how players may choose to engage with it--the total number of pieces remaining on the board for both black and white teams, and the total number of kings remaining for each team. You can also track your stats as an individual player by number of captures and number of moves made, and you can even find a nearby online player to engage in live battle by clicking the skull icon in the navigation panel.

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Nintendo has predicted how many Switch 2 consoles it expects to sell during its 2026 financial year, which will cover the first 10 months of the hybrid gaming console when it hits the market on June 5. According to Nintendo's results for the full financial year that ended on March 31, it's forecasting that it'll sell 15 million Switch 2 consoles and 45 million games.

This would put it close to the sales figures of the original Switch console, which launched in March 2017 and reached 17.79 million sales globally during its first 13 months. It's also worth noting that Nintendo is predicting that the Switch 2 will reach its sales goal in 10 months. There are other elements to consider as well--like the Switch 2 having a higher MSRP of $450 for the base model--but the company has factored in US president Donald Trump's tariff rates for its sales. In Japan, demand has outstripped supply as Nintendo says preorders that side have exceeded its expectations.

In other news from its financial year 2025 report, Nintendo reported a decline in net sales and profits, but it is predicting a 63% rise in net sales for the next financial year that'll end on March 31, 2026. Lifetime Switch console sales now stand at 152.12 million units sold as of March 31, 2025, and 155 million Switch games were sold during this financial year, a drop of 22% when compared to the previous year's tally of 200 million units sold.

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My first go-round with Death Stranding was a complicated one.

Longtime fans of Hideo Kojima were salivating at the prospect of the first project coming out of his post-Konami studio. No one knew quite what to expect. Early trailers didn’t help much. Was this just … a delivery game? Were we in store for a Metal Gear Solid 2-like gotcha moment when we played the final product? Not really! It was, in many ways, a “delivery game.” Albeit one wrapped in a narrative and universe that made Metal Gear Solid (samurai President clones and all) seem like a realistic depiction of tactical stealth action by comparison.

I hated it. I don’t know what I expected or wanted out of this new IP, but something about holding the trigger buttons to lean left and right to avoid falling over instantly turned me off. I found the game monotonous, needlessly obtuse, and described it in a way only a veteran games writer could. Namely, I went on podcasts and said it “****ing sucks” and also “sucks s**t.” There’s a reason people pay me to talk about video games.

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Fanatical just kicked off Bundlefest Spring 2025, and this iteration of the popular PC game promotion looks to be the biggest yet. Past Bundlefests started on Mondays and ran for five days. Typically, Fanatical introduced one new bundle each day, but occasionally there were days with two bundle offers. This time around, Bundlefest started on a Wednesday (May 7) and runs through Friday, May 16. New bundles will go live each weekday, meaning there will be at least eight new game bundles total during Bundlefest Spring 2025.

Kicking things off is a new Killer Bundle with five roguelike action games $5. The next new bundle is scheduled to go live on Thursday, May 8, at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET. You can check out what's included in the new Killer Bundle below, and be sure to check back tomorrow for the latest deal.

Fanatical's Bundlefest Spring 2025 at a glance

• Wednesday, May 7: Killer Bundle (Bundlefest Spring 2025)
• Thursday, May 8: TBA
• Friday, May 9: TBA
• Monday, May 12: TBA
• Tuesday, May 13: TBA
• Wednesday, May 14: TBA
• Thursday, May 15: TBA
• Friday, May 16: TBA

See all bundle deals at Fanatical

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Nintendo might be synonymous with video games today, but the company actually got its start as a playing card company. Founded in 1889, Nintendo originally produced Hanafuda--a type of card used to play a variety of games dating back to the 16th century. Playing cards are obviously no longer Nintendo’s main attraction, but the gaming giant hasn't forgotten its humble playing card roots. Nintendo has continued to release card decks, albeit not as many these days, including traditional 52-card Legend of Zelda- and Mario-themed decks as well as unique hanafuda cards featuring characters from the Mushroom Kingdom.

Nintendo playing cards are primarily sold in Japan, though a bunch of imported decks have popped up on Amazon over the years. Prices tend to change often because you're buying from resellers with limited stock, but the decks typically ship from Amazon and some even have Prime shipping. We've rounded up all of the Nintendo playing cards we could find on Amazon.

All of the 52-card decks below are packaged in a clear plastic case with a Nintendo logo, so you can display the cool artwork when you aren't playing.

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One of the big changes coming to the Switch 2 is the integration of audio and video chats throughout the console experience with a feature called GameChat. However, this new feature has required Nintendo to change its privacy policy: The company has disclosed that it may record Switch 2 audio and video chat sessions held between players.

In a recent update to its privacy policy, Nintendo explained, "We may collect, monitor and record audio and video of your chat sessions with other users to provide a safe and secure environment for certain of our services." This data collection is done with the player's consent--which, if other consoles are anything to go by, could take the form of a clause in the terms of use for the chat functionality or an opt-in screen. Further, Nintendo specifically states that this recording process is done to "enforce our terms," which could include both safety policies and legal requirements.

Recording video and audio chats is not unique to Nintendo, and in fact this brings the company's approach in line with Xbox and PlayStation. Microsoft, for instance, states that it collects data from Xbox chat sessions, at least in part to power Xbox's voice chat reporting functionality for safety enforcement. PlayStation party sessions and voice chat are also recorded to some extent for safety and security.

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